The Titanic set sail on its inaugural voyage from England to New York City on April 10, 1912. Several well-known and wealthy people were on board....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Haitian engineer Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche On the ill-fated RMS Titanic was the only passenger of known African heritage.
The plot of a poor young man snatching a wealthy lady from a well-respected man on the ship has caused everyone to overlook the fact that the ship was carrying approximately 3,300 other passengers (including crew members).
Joseph Phillippe was born in Haiti on May 26, 1886. He was a trained engineer who completed his studies in Paris. He was married to Juliette, a white French woman, and they were on the Titanic with their two children when it collided with an iceberg in 1912.
Joseph, like many others, drowned, but his family survived the catastrophe and arrived in New York City safely with the other survivors.
When Joseph’s wife gave birth to their first two daughters, Simonne and Louise, he recognized he needed to find a better paying profession to maintain his family, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro.
Unfortunately, on April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank slowly. One of the sixteen lifeboats allowed Joseph’s wife and children to embark. However, Joseph, like many other men who had been separated from their families, did not make it and perished. He was never seen or heard from again.
When his wife and children arrived in New York, she opted to return to France after reconsidering her decision to move to Haiti. She gave birth to her and her late husband’s third child, a son she affectionately named Joseph, Jr., later that year.
Where is the Titanic’s wreckage?
The Titanic wreck, discovered on September 1, 1985, lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 4,000 meters below the water’s surface..CONTINUE READING>>
