Yūsuf Hānī Ibrāhīm-Shawah was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Yūsuf Hānī Ibrāhīm-Shawah was born in the former Syrian city of Beirut now the capital of the Lebanon. He came into this world in 1879.
Many years later, he had put the ring on the finger of a woman named Susian. The pair had off-spring. His mother-in-law died around 1911. For this reason, he set about for a journey to the United States to get to Susian’s widowed father. Their destination was Texas, where Sim'īn Yūsuf 'Atī Allīh was living.The whole family was supposed to leave for America, but trachoma, a serious eye infection, stopped his wife and children to come with him, so Yusuf now had to go without them, but he had Malakah Atā Allāh, his wife’s younger sister, with him.
Titanic[]
Yūsuf held a ticket for Third Class to get on board Titanic in Cherbourg on the evening of April 10, when he and Malakah were brought to Titanic via a tender.
On the night of April 14, what had been plain sailing for most of Titanic’s Maiden Voyage quickly turned sour after an iceberg put a spanner in the wheel at 23:39 P.M. Titanic steamed right towards her but the lookouts coudn’t see it before it was too close to get around it. With the engines backwards and Titanic’s rudder put to starboard, a direct confrontation with this wall of ice was prevented, but she couldn’t steer clear completely. A collision on her side was the result, which left Titanic with serious damage, namely a few dents and openings in her hull which led water into her belly. With the help of the ship’s designer, the captain went down below to look at Titanic’s state. After careful analysis, the shocking truth was inevitable. The ship was not unsinkable and could hold out for just 2 hours, as designer Thomas Andrews had worked out.
To evacuate as many passengers as possible, Captain Smith called the crew and told them to make the lifeboats ready, just after midnight on April 15. Only less than a third of the people aboard Titanic made their way off the ship in a boat. Yūsuf and his sister-in-law were not among the rescued, as they died in the sinking.
After his death[]
The White Star Line later sent out vessels to recover bodies, but he and Malakah were not found.
Yūsuf now had a widow and children who may have escaped being involved in this tragedy but now had their own personal loss. For that, they were compensated with £37, 10s from the Titanic Relief Fund. Susian Shawah was not satisfied and demanded $15,000 from the White Star Line.