Irish Aboard Titanic (35 page)

The four lads from the same area roomed together in a compartment at the bow of the ship. Short minutes after the first scrapings of disaster they had to evacuate their cabin urgently – although it seems they initially believed Buckley was pulling their legs about something being wrong with the ship. But then water came sliding onto the floor of their room in the aftermath of the ship's forward starboard plates being opened to the sea. Dannie had already fled, allowing the others space to tumble out of their bunks and organise themselves. He never saw them again.

Buckley, in a letter home composed on the
Carpathia a few days after he had been saved and when he was still under severe psychological stress,
deals with his friend, neighbour and cousin's death in these dissociated terms – ‘There is no account of Patie Connell (25) … ' the age is wrong, and its inclusion seems inappropriate.

Although referred to colloquially as Patie Connell, there is no doubt that his surname took an O' prefix, as demonstrated repeatedly by class rosters from his earliest schooling in Kingwilliamstown. It is also clear from the passenger manifest, booking records and a White Star receipts statement that Patie liked to include his middle initial in his name – hence entries for both ‘Pat D.' and ‘Patrick D. O'Connell'.

He may have thought the inclusion of the ‘D.' a very sophisticated, or American, thing to do. He was young, he was innocent and he had dreams. And then death got in the way.

1901 census – O'Connell, Kingwilliamstown.

Parents: Denis (42) and Hanna (42).

Children: Mary Anne (12), Timothy (10), Hannah (8),
Patrick (7),
Catherine (5), Julia (3).

Maurice O'Connor (16) Lost

Ticket number 371060. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Ballinloughane, County Limerick.

Destination: 539 East 72nd Street, New York city.

Maurice O'Connor was painfully young to die. He was travelling to New York to live with Michael O'Connor, who might have been a brother two years older who went by the name of ‘Murt' to distinguish him from his father, also Michael O'Connor.

Maurice O'Connor was one of those who were transferred to the
Titanic
after the withdrawal of the
Cymric
's intended transatlantic passage of 7 April.

1901 census – O'Connor, Ballinloughane.

Parents Michael (50), farm labourer; Kate (41).

Wife's child from a previous marriage: Margaret Regan (14).

Joint children: John (8), Murt (7),
Maurice (5),
Ellen (3).

Patrick O'Connor (23) Lost

Ticket number 366713. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Tureenavoscane, Boherbue, County Cork.

Destination: New York city.

Pat was the oldest among the group of men from the Duhallow area of Cork who roomed together on the
Titanic
. As such, his might have been the mocking voice that told the youngest occupant of their compartment, Daniel Buckley, when the latter reported something wrong with the ship: ‘Get into bed. You are not in Ireland now.'

When O'Connor and the others – Michael Linehan and Patie D. O'Connell – were finally alerted to the danger of the situation, they sprang out of the bunks in their narrow cabin, located right at the bows where the ship had struck. To make room for them as they jumped into their clothes and hunted for lifebelts, Dannie Buckley stepped out into the corridor. He declared that he never again saw Michael and the two Pats, one of whom had uttered the laughing put-down.

It appears Pat O'Connor did make it to the upper decks, however. One of the party travelling from Kingwilliamstown was his cousin Hannah Riordan, who survived. She told her own children years afterwards that her cousin was one of the men left on board as her boat was lowered.

She added that he had called out to her, and others with her, as their lifeboat pulled away: ‘Goodbye, girls. I'll see you in New York.' Self-assured and confident to the last, Pat O'Connor may have convinced himself that twinkling lights of a mystery ship seen off the port bow represented sure-fire rescue. His cockiness, if such it was, could not have lasted long.

Patrick O'Connor had been one of only two children left behind at the family homestead from a brood of eight surviving children born to his parents. It must have been unusual for him to find himself the oldest among his
Titanic
cabin companions because he had always been the baby at home, the very youngest of all. This was a likely factor in his emigration. The family farm was due to be inherited by his older brother Michael.

Duhallow men amongst the missing

Our Duhallow correspondent writes – There now appears to be little doubt that three young men of the farming class from the Boherbee and Williamstown districts have perished in the
Titanic
disaster.

Their names are Patrick Connell, Kingwilliamstown, and Michael Lenihan and Patrick Connors, Boherbee … The deepest sympathy is felt for the friends and relatives of the young men who left the green shores of Ireland only to meet with such a tragic end.

(
The Cork Examiner,
25 April 1912)

Patrick O'Connor seems to be the person referred to mysteriously as ‘Jim Connor, Hugh's son, from Tureenavonacane' by Buckley, the only survivor of this group, in a letter home composed on the
Carpathia
. Buckley had a neighbour named Hugh Connor who had a son named Jim, but this man had remained at home. Buckley was certainly still in shock when writing the letter and also recording that there was no account of his companions and that he hoped they were ‘taken into some other ship'. But there was no hope for Patrick O'Connor.

What is clear are the Board of Trade records for this passenger, which show him to be a 24-year-old farmer named Pat O'Connor. This surname also accords with his baptismal records and the census returns, so there is no room for doubt. Patrick O'Connor was due to sail on the
Cymric
, four days before
Titanic
, but was transferred to the latter.

He was born on 30 May 1888, in ‘Tureenavuskane', and was a just over month short of his 24th birthday when he died. His nephew, also named Pat O'Connor, later emigrated to the United States and became a famous boxer in the 1940s and 1950s.

Mansion House
Titanic
Relief Fund Booklet, March 1913:

Case number 494. O'Connor, P., parents. Grant £20.

1911 census – Tureenavoscane, County Cork.

Parents: James (69) and Abina (65). Married 41 years, eleven children born, eight alive. John (28), farmer's son,
Patrick (23)
, farmer's son.

William O'Doherty (22) Lost

Ticket number 330877. Paid £6 19s 2d.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: 12 Old Market Place, Cork city.

Destination: c/o G. P. McDonough, Ellis Island, New York city.

William O'Doherty died in another man's stead. O'Doherty's name does not appear on the official passenger list. Instead it is certain that he died under another name, as O'Doherty had purchased his passage from one James Moran, and embarked and was lost under this name. (A James Moran from Annabrack, County Offaly, aged 20, emigrated to the USA on the
Titanic
's sister ship Olympic in September 1912.) As William O'Doherty was a barman, the transaction might even have taken place in a pub, the slip passing over the counter in exchange for a discount price.

Fate of a young Corkman

The first name on the list of passengers represents a young Corkman who travelled under the name of James Moran. The real name is William Doherty [
sic
], a young man, aged 22 years and nine months, whose relations live at the Old Market Place, Blarney Street.

Mr Doherty was, up to the eve of his sailing, employed at Mr W. O'Callaghan's (vintner), Daunt's Square. In an interview with the father, he stated that his son had purchased the ticket off an acquaintance some time since.

He had very little hope as to his son's safety, for he had failed to get any information. The fate of the young man caused the greatest anxiety, not only among his relations, but also among his acquaintances.

(
Cork Free Press
,
17 April 1912)

The 1911 census reveals that William John O'Doherty was a 21-year-old barman, living at home with his father, William Snr, 55, a retired RIC officer, railway policeman and grocer, and his mother, Anne (53). Among other children in the family were Thomas Peter (23), railway porter, Annie (18); John James (16), another barman; and Bartholomew (15). The family had lived in Cross Lane, Rosscarbery, in 1901.

James Moran, Cork, sold his ticket to Willie Doherty, Cork, who was lost under name ‘James Moran'.

(
Irish World,
New York, 11 May 1912)

There is no ‘James Moran' of any age in either Cork city or county in the 1911 census. And despite references to Doherty, the name used in census returns, descendants today are adamant the name was O'Doherty.

A number of newspaper reports indicated that O'Doherty could have been on board the
Titanic
in the company of another barman, Timothy O'Brien. But O'Brien's name does not appear on the passenger list.

O'Doherty's niece says William's mother, Anne, gave her son £5 towards his passage, despite her husband not wanting him to go. In a family memoir Philomena Cobley wrote that the mother ‘was suicidal and racked with grief and had to be locked in her room for three days when confirmation came there were no more survivors. I can just imagine the suspenseful vigil that they endured and the torment at their loss.'

According to folklore, the family of his mother (née Golden, of Donoughmore, Co. Cork) was blighted by a disgruntled tenant with a
piseóg
. Drowning would dog the family, the curse vowed. And so it turned out. A brother and a nephew of Anne's were later drowned, along with three of her own children, including William.

Peter Crowley, William's grandnephew takes up the story:

When William bought his
Titanic
ticket he would join the list of those cursed to die by water. William's uncle James had drowned in a stream having fallen from a horse. Of William's five siblings, Michael had already drowned in a cauldron of hot water on the family farm, aged three, when supposed to be under the supervision of Anne's sister Mary.

There is a certain amount of mystery concerning William's decision to travel to America. The story is that William was going with a girl of whom his mother disapproved. So, to break the relationship, she opted to pack her son off to America where her brother William, and sisters Teresa and Frances, would look after him.

The family believe the vital ticket, counterfoil number 330877, was sold because Moran was ill. It was snapped up for £5 – a bargain, since the original cost was nearly £7.

Nellie O'Dwyer (26) Saved

Ticket number 330959. Paid £7 12s 7d, plus 5s extra.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: 33 High Street, Limerick city.

Destination: 13th & East 3rd Street, Brooklyn, New York city.

Limerick girl's thrilling narrative

The
Brooklyn Daily Times
contains an interview by one of its representatives with Miss Nellie O'Dwyer, High Street, Limerick, who was a passenger on board the ill-fated
Titanic
, having booked her passage with Mr Ludlow, emigration agent, Glentworth street. Miss O'Dwyer had been six years residing in Brooklyn, ever since she came from her native city. She was returning to New York after a visit to her father. The interview proceeds to say –

‘I was about dozing off to sleep when the big ship seemed to jar,' she began. ‘I was not frightened; but got up to ask the other girls what made the vessel act so. Then it was still. You know, all day and all night there was a whirr of machinery and then when it stopped it was queer. For the longest while, none of us could find out what was the matter, but then some young men who were on the vessel with us from Queenstown, told us to go back to sleep, it was nothing.

‘“Ye foolish girls, go back to your beds,” they said to us; “sure the ship struck an iceberg, but it would take a power of icebergs to harm her.” So we – well, most of us – started to go back, but the boys said they were going up on deck to see the berg, for the Captain was going to bring it aboard. Of course, 'twas fooling us they were. Some time later we could hear folks running around above, and we went up the stairway to the upper steerage deck. Something was wrong, we could see that, but we were not frightened, really.

‘But then we heard them shouting to get the lifebelts. We knew then something must be wrong. We girls and some of the women with us knelt down on the deck and said the Rosary. Some ladies and gentlemen passed us from cabins and they looked at us curiously. Boats were being lowered and people were being helped into them. Some were almost thrown in.

‘Poor Paddy Lane,' murmured the girl after a pause. ‘He was a fine young fellow, a little younger than I am, and when we were leaving the other side, his folks asked me to please look after poor Paddy in America.

‘When the boats were being lowered, Paddy knelt on the deck and prayed. Then he began to run around calling for the priest. And he started for the other side of the ship. I never saw him again. Paddy went down when the ship sunk.

‘Then there was a sweet little boy. Oh! the grandest and most beautiful prayers that one could hear from a child, do you know. I think he was lost, for I don't remember seeing him the next morning in any of the boats.

‘The captain treated everyone alike, whether they were from the first cabin or the steerage. He acted angry only towards the men that were rushing forward. He kept us from the panic, so he did. The Italian men were the worst. There was a poor fellow near where I was, and they could not get him back, and an officer shot him and he fell at my feet. I never heard the ship's band playing louder. Men were shouting, women were crying for their husbands and children to stay with them. I don't know how I got to the cabin above.