Irish Aboard Titanic (13 page)

Heavily bearded Frank had enjoyed the prospect of a trip in the big ship. A fisherman for much of his life, he had an abiding love of the sea, and his enjoyment of the dawning adventure can be seen in a startling photograph taken on board the tender
Ireland,
on 11 April 1912. The little boat is about to cast out from the quay to ferry the passengers to the 882-foot leviathan now lying at anchor off Roche's Point. A photographer from
The Cork Examiner
, capturing the moment from the tender America alongside, finds Frank Dwan in his lens, smiling happily in conversation with Eugene Daly, who has his back to the rail.

Yet there is evidence that on the night before he sailed, Frank Dwan had a premonition of disaster and even spoke of the liner sinking to fellow passengers. Nonetheless he spurned an offer to take another ship and boarded the pride of the White Star fleet.

Frank had been married for forty-five years when he took his journey into fate. He and Bridget, his senior by four years, had had eight children, four of whom remained alive. One, Daniel, then aged 29, was one of the offspring who were all working as orderlies and porters in Morris Plains Insane Asylum in New Jersey. Two sons later became chauffeurs for the Rockefeller family and became rich themselves by the standards of the emigrant Irish.

Frank's name was misspelled ‘Dewan' in the official White Star passenger list. He had been described on embarkation records as an agricultural labourer, and in the 1901 census had termed himself a general labourer. By 1911 he had reverted to the calling of fisherman. Frank wore his ‘lucky' Norwegian fishing cap as he boarded the
Titanic
. His death effectively robbed his widow, who had urged him to travel, of all family companionship. His body, like so many others, was never found.

The Cork Examiner
reported on Frank Dwan's short stay in Queenstown in its coverage of the disaster on 17 April 1912, in a piece filed by their local correspondent:

I heard many pathetic stories of those Irish travellers who were here for a day or so before they sailed on the ill-fated ship, but there was one old man amongst the many who came here on last Wednesday night. He was a hale old fellow, from Bunmahon, County Waterford. He asked the lodging house keeper on arrival if he knew him, and the reply was no. ‘Well then,' he replied (his name was Duane [
sic
]), ‘every child of mine that went to America stayed in this house, and I'm going out now to stay with them for a bit. My wife was out lately, and it's my turn to have a spell now, but I'm coming back again as soon as I stay a bit with my children.'

He thought £8 1s, the steerage passage money, high, and was told that if he waited for the
Celtic
till next morning he'd get his ticket for £7 16s, but he wouldn't have it, as every hour was too long until he'd meet the children, and they'd be waiting for him, and he wired his wife for some additional money, which she sent, and he booked his passage full of high hopes that ere a full week elapsed he'd meet his children on American soil.

Strangely enough, on that Wednesday night, the eve of his departure, he and many other travellers booked by the
Titanic,
commenced discussing the big crowd the
Titanic
would be taking, and Duane remarked what an awful thing it would be if she were sunk with all her passengers. It surely was a strange remark. The feelings of Duane's children, looking forward to a meeting they had longed for years can easily be imagined. They had been pressing him for years to go out, but he refused all along, until finally the inducements of wife and children made him go, and possibly he now lies numbered amongst the dead.

Frank Dwan is commemorated by a plaque and sculpture of his face at Saleen Church in his birthplace of Bunmahon, where he had married Bridget Walsh in 1867.

James Farrell (25) Lost

Ticket number 367232. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Clonee, Killoe, County Longford.

Destination: 420 East 80th Street, New York city.

He helped to save others, but for James Farrell there was no escape. His body was recovered from the sea, still clutching Rosary beads. It was sealed in canvas and weighted, given a brief religious service, and reconsigned to the deep.

Katie Gilnagh, an Irish
Titanic
survivor, recounted to author Walter Lord that a seaman at a barrier had blocked her, Kate Mullins and Kate Murphy:

Suddenly steerage passenger Jim Farrell, a strapping Irishman from the girls' home county, barged up. ‘Great God, man!' he roared. ‘Open the gate and let the girls through!' It was a superb demonstration of sheer voice-power. To the girls' astonishment, the sailor meekly complied.

Walter Lord,
A Night to Remember

In a letter to her father, Katie Gilnagh stated that James Farrell of Clonee was very kind to her and another girl. As they were leaving the ill-fated vessel, he gave her his cap to cover her head, and shouted ‘Good-bye for ever.'

(
Irish Independent,
15 May 1912)

The story of the thrown cap is widespread in Longford, and Miss Gilnagh kept it for many years.

Farrell certainly appears to have been a very gregarious man. His body was later recovered, and from the list of effects it seems he may have swopped a coin for some souvenir kronor with one of the Scandinavian steerage passengers. Making conversation in the linguistic melting-pot below decks must have been interesting.

The following report comes from the Halifax coroner's office, which would have received details of the deceased as well as their effects from the search boat:

No. 68. Male. Estimated age 40. Hair dark. Moustache light.

Clothing – Dark suit; black boots; grey socks.

Effects – Silver watch; two purses (one empty), the other with $10.00,

3s. 2 and a half d., and 10 kronor; two studs; cameo; beads, left on body.

Name on Third Class ticket No. B67233 [
sic
] – James Farrell, Longford.

The corpse was recovered eight days after the sinking. The
MacKay-Bennett
recovery vessel had a policy of not returning heavily decomposed or crushed bodies to port, at least bodies identifiable as being from Third Class. Passenger bodies of other classes were packed in ice and placed in storage, while there were caskets aboard for First-Class corpses. James Farrell was buried at sea on 24 April 1912. He had been due to join a brother, Michael, in New York.

1901 census – Clonee, County Longford.

Parents John (40), farmer; Ellen (36). Children: Catherine (17), Michael (15),
James (14),
John (12), Mary (11), Edward (9), Thomas (7).

Honora Fleming (22) Lost

Ticket number 364859. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Carrowskehine, Addergoole, County Mayo.

Destination: 542 West 112th Street, New York city.

It was Honora's twenty-second birthday the night the
Titanic
sank. She would likely not have remained long in her chair in steerage as a succession of young men used a heaven-sent excuse to request a dance with this beaming, if bashful, birthday girl. Many are the accounts of gaiety throughout Third Class on that fateful Sunday night, and it is likely that celebrations for the young Mayo girl occupied one small part of the general festivities.

Listed aboard as ‘Nora', she was a housemaid, as was her sister Catherine (25), who had previously emigrated to New York city. Catherine Fleming Wynne sent money home to enable her younger sibling to come to America in 1911, but family legend says it was spent on a cow. Then she sent money again, and her sister was finally on her way.

Honora was among those wakened by stewards who said the Rosary in a gangway in the company of her Mayo friends. According to teenage Irish survivor Annie Kate Kelly, the group was then encouraged to go back to bed and did so. Honora was roused a second time as realisation of the danger spread, but there is no account of any later movements. She drowned and her name was later misspelled ‘Hemming' in the official White Star casualty list.

Born and baptised on the same day, 14 April 1890, she appears in the parish baptismal record as Honora, a daughter of Thomas Fleming and Mary Callaghan. The 1901 census erroneously records her as ‘Honor', and her age as 12 years. In the 1911 census she is listed under the pet name ‘Onnie', short for Honora, aged 21. Her father, Thomas, is listed as a 60-year-old farmer, and her mother, Mary, as 58. The other children include Thomas (27), Josie (11), Bridget (15) and Ellie (13).

She appears to have been related to Margaret Devaney of Sligo, who told the
New York Herald
that ‘Anna' Fleming (the name ‘Onnie' or ‘Honor' may have been misheard) was ‘entertaining us with Irish songs when the first word of trouble came. She went down with the
Titanic
, poor girl, and I believe she was singing or joking at the time, she was that jolly.'

James Flynn (28) Lost

Ticket number 364851. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Cuilkillew, Addergoole, County Mayo.

Destination: 236 East 53rd Street, New York city.

James Flynn was travelling to join his younger brother Anthony, who lived in New York, at East 53rd Street. His age and occupation were given on embarkation as a 27-year-old labourer. The
Report of the American Red Cross
says: ‘No. 141. (Irish.) A young man was lost.' His brother asked for assistance in recovering the body, and the necessary steps were taken for that purpose, but the body was not recovered.

James was from Cuilkillew, and was the son of James Flynn Snr, a 70-year-old farmer in 1912, and his wife, Anne, who was 64. He was baptised on 13 September 1883. He had turned 28 by the time he joined the great ship at Queenstown. He was related to both the Kelly and the Canavan families, which also provided
Titanic
passengers from Mayo.

Titanic
survivor Annie Kate Kelly makes extensive references in her accounts of the tragedy to a passenger named ‘Patrick Flynn', which could be construed as meaning James Flynn, the only male Flynn passenger among the large Mayo party on board the
Titanic.
Annie makes pathetic references to the ‘little Flynn boy' being refused a place in the lifeboat and being pushed back, even though he was slight and not able to take care of himself. ‘It was pitiful that they wouldn't allow the boy stay on the lifeboat, and he only a child and it not full.' While James may have been small in stature, he was certainly no boy, and definitely not a child, as one American newspaper had it.

Little ‘Patrick' Flynn is last seen by Annie Kelly holding hands with John and Catherine Bourke as they stood by the deck rail of the
Titanic
, waiting for the end.

John Flynn (42) Lost

Ticket number 368323. Paid £6 19s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Carrowhawkin, Clonbur, County Galway.

Destination: 3434 Frazier Street, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

John Flynn came home to Ireland because he was promised the family farm by his sister Bridget. But when he arrived, she suddenly reneged on the offer and he was returning bitterly disappointed on
Titanic
to his wife and six children. He never arrived. The devastation for his children can only be imagined. One son, Ed, later committed suicide by jumping off a Pittsburgh bridge after his business failed.

Report of the American Red Cross
(Titanic
Disaster) 1913:

No. 142. (Irish.) The husband, returning from a visit to Ireland, was drowned. He had been a resident of this country 28 years and was a labourer, earning $2 a day. He is survived by a wife and six children, the eldest of whom is nineteen, and youngest three years of age. The two eldest girls, employed as housemaids, earn $4 and $5 a week. A cousin of the wife lives with the family and, beside her board, gives some small assistance.

The husband left $1,000 life insurance and a small piece of city property bought before his marriage, which promises to become valuable. The family own the house in which they have lived for twelve years. They saved enough money to buy the lot and borrowed $600 from a building and loan association, to which they paid $5 a month. At the time of the disaster, no payment had been made for three or four months, and $175 there was due … From relief funds other than the Red Cross, the widow received $3,697.28. ($1,700)

According to embarkation records, John Flynn had become a US citizen during his nearly three decades in America. He indicated that he was a 42-year-old agricultural labourer, but may have worked in open-cast mining in the Pittsburgh area.

Folklore in Clonbur, County Galway, states that John Flynn was not drowned in the disaster, but died from exposure on board a lifeboat. This conviction cannot be verified from any available sources. A sister of the deceased, Mary Gallagher of New York, wrote to Bridget in Ireland, claiming the body had been landed from the
Carpathia.
It was alleged to have been buried in Long Island.

His sister Bridget's decision to keep the farm meant that John's was not only a wasted journey, but also a deadly one. His return ticket was bought at the shipping agency of Joe Coyne in Clonbur.

A photograph of John was taken on the day he left to board the
Titanic
, but it has been lost.

Joseph Foley (19) Lost

Ticket number 330910. Paid £7 12s 7d, plus 5s extra.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Mountplummer, Newcastlewest, County Cork.

Destination: Larchmont, New York.

There were two Joseph Foleys whose stories became merged with the
Titanic
disaster. One lived, the other died. The one who lived was a 26-year-old from Foulkesmill, County Wexford, who crossed the Atlantic on the White Star liner
Celtic,
arriving on 20 April 1912. However, a relative of this Joseph Foley spotted the name on a list of
Titanic
casualties, plunging a family into needless grief. But they had the joy of relief on learning he had arrived in America two days after the
Carpathia
landed the meagre number of
Titanic
survivors.