The Untold Story of the Lebanese on the Titanic

The Untold Story of the Lebanese on Titanic

“We share the pain but not the glory”

Did you know that there were 154 Lebanese on board the Titanic and that 125 perished? They were third class passengers leaving their Ottoman controlled villages in Mount Lebanon to better their circumstances. They had heard the success stories of returning immigrants from America who told that the “streets were paved in gold” and they were seeking freedom in the New World. Instead, they became prisoners of fate.

If you would like to learn more about the Lebanese on the Titanic, click on the maroon-colored link above, which is a pdf of a presentation given on April 17, 2015 at the Vancouver Public Library, hosted by the Lebanese Canadian Society of British Columbia and sponsored by the International Lebanese Titanic Committee and the World Lebanese Cultural Union.

Will of Titanic Passenger Recently Discovered


Did A Young Scot Anticipate His Own Demise?

Mr. Robert Douglas Norman, a 28 year-old electrical engineer from Glasgow, Scotland, was traveling on the Titanic from Southampton to Vancouver, Canada where his brother resided and where he owned some land. He boarded the doomed ship as a second class passenger. On the evening of April 14th Douglas played the piano at a hymn service presided over by Reverend  Ernest Carter. After the collision, Norman met Kate Buss and Marion Wright and told them the ship had struck an iceberg but assured them there was no danger.

Why does Titanic still fascinate us?

All Too Human

During my visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 14-15th, for the Titanic 100 commemoration, I met numerous people, young and old, from different ethnic backgrounds and without necessarily a direct relationship to any Titanic victims or survivors, who flocked from all corners of the globe, to be part of this special remembrance. Some were die-hard Titanic fans, fondly known as “Titaniomaniacs” and some were novices just like me. Notwithstanding their knowledge base disparity, both groups share even one hundred years later, an unrelenting fascination with Titanic.

Titanic Mystery Solved

To Whom Belongs The Tiny Pair Of Shoes?

One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the sinking of RMS Titanic 100 years ago relates to a tiny pair of shoes retrieved from the remains of a toddler.

The child’s body was found floating face up without a life jacket in the icy North Atlantic five days after Titanic struck an iceberg and sank more than 700 miles from the Nova Scotia coast at approximately 2:20am on April 15, 1912.

The Halifax-Titanic Connection

Why is my great grandfather buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia?

Dubbed “The City of Sorrow”, the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago, had an enormous impact on Halifax, Nova Scotia. Although, this maritime city lies about 700 miles northwest of the Titanic sinking site, Halifax became the epicenter of the Titanic recovery efforts. After the Carpathia had rescued 700 passengers and sailed to New York, the White Star Line dispatched the first of four Canadian ships to search for bodies after the sinking.

My Great-Grandfather Died On The Titanic

A Night to Remember…

 A personal account about my great-grandfather and the Titanic

This Sunday, the 15^th of April 2012, is the Centennial of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic.  Of the passengers aboard “the ship of dreams”, more than 1,500 perished, including Gerios Youssef Abi-Saab, my great-grandfather.

Gerios, a native of the village of Thoum, in Northern Lebanon, left his wife and six children including Wehbe, my grandfather, who was five years old, hoping to provide a better life for his family by working in America. Lebanon, under Ottoman rule at the time, was struck by famine and poverty and religious tensions pervaded. Lebanese migration became widespread resulting in several waves of departures to faraway lands such as Australia, South America, Canada and the United States.