John Lingane
Mr John Lingane, 61, was born in Kildorrery, County Cork, Ireland in 1851. On 16th May 1876 he married Ellen Savage (born 1843) and together they had five sons: Jeremiah, Patrick, James, Vincent and William (1878-1900). Sometime towards the end of the 19th century Lingane emigrated to America where he bought some land to the northwest of Chelsea, MI by a dirt track. The track would later become Lingane Road, the house listed as 6690 Lingane Road.
Few facts are known about their life in Chelsea but one elderly resident recalled (in 1985) them drivng to St. Mary's Church on Sundays in a 'Surrey' led by a black prancing horse. Another person recalled a close friendship between Lingane and his grandfather. John was a hard-working farmer and father and it was his ultimate aim to return to Ireland with his wife. Tragically Ellen died in March 1911 and the journey to Ireland that Autumn, to visit relatives and old friends, was taken alone and in mourning. For the return journey John had booked passage on the White Star Liner Celtic but was persuaded to await the arrival of the newer and more luxurious Titanic which he boared as a second class passenger when it stopped briefly in Queenstown.
Lingane died in the sinking but ten days later his ultimate fate was still unknown to the people of Chelsea:
CHELSEA, MICHIGAN, THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1912MAY HAVE BEEN ON BOARD TITANIC
John Lingane, of Sylvan1, Is Thought to Have Been Passenger
The friends of John Lingane are in grave doubts as to his whereabouts. According to letters he sent to two of his friends here he stated that he expected to leave on his return journey from Ireland about April 1st. It is possible that he may have sailed on the Titanic which sailed from Queenstown, one of the principal seaports of Ireland, on April 10. Mr. Lingane was visiting at Kildorrery, County Cork. At Queenstown the passengers for Cork take a small boat, and as Mr. Lingane was not far from the seaport, he could easily have taken passage on the ill-fated steamer.
Among the names of the second class passengers appears the name of John Legame, and his Chelsea friends fear that the name is spelled wrong. Last Saturday R.B.Waltrous telegraphed to the White Star Line office in New York making an inquiry in regard to Mr. Lingane, but received a reply that there was no such name on the passenger list.
Mr. Lingane has four sons living, one of them Patrick resides on the R.P.Chase farm in Sylvan.
Confirmation of his death wasn't received until May 23, 1912, when a letter which expressed regret and deepest sympathy that John Lingane was not on the survivor's list was received by the sons. The letter was on parchment and was written by the White Star Line.
John Lingane's body was never recovered, but he is remembered on the grave of his wife and one of his sons in Oak Grove Cemetery, in Chelsea.
His son Patrick continued to farm the land in Chelsea before moving to Jackson.
Notes
1Sylvan Township is a rural district adjacent to the town of Chelsea. His residence would have been in Sylvan Township, but his mailing address would have been Chelsea.
Sources
The Chelsea Standard, Chelsea, Michigan, April 25, 1912; April 15, 1962; April 10, 1985
Contributor
Beth Easterwood
George Patchett
© Nicholas Jardine-Patterson
Mr George Patchett1 & John Garfirth
Mr George Patchett1, 19, a farming engineer from Wollaston, Northamptonshire, England was travelling with John Garfirth, to start a new life in Canada. They were originally sailing on the Empress, from Liverpool, but because of a coal strike their train could not make it through. They later decided to sail the Titanic.
Both men lost their lives in the sinking
Notes
1 Most lists print the name as Potchett, however the spelling here is confirmed by members of the family.
Contributor
Nicholas Jardine-Patterson
Rob Scott
Margaret Bechstein Hays
Miss Margaret Bechstein Hays, 24, of New York City boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. She escaped with her Pomeranian dog in lifeboat 7, the first boat to be launched.
Aboard the Carpathia, Miss Hays, fluent in French, volunteered to care for two young French boys who spoke no English and had been unclaimed by an adult relative. The boys were Michel and Edmond Navratil, whose late father Michel Sr. had been trying to take them to America after kidnapping them from their mother. They stayed in Miss Hays home, under the supervision of the Children's Aid Society, until the children's mother was located and brought to America to claim them.
Contributors
Marta Santiago
Emma Santiago
Michel Navratil
Michel Navratil
Mr Michel Navratil was born in Slovakia but moved to Nice, France in 1902, where he became a tailor. There he met and married teenager Marcelle Carretto from Italy. They had two sons, Master Michel M. and Edmond Roger (Lolo and Momon), however, by 1912 the business was in trouble and Michel claimed that Marcelle had been having an affair. The couple separated, the boys going with their mother. They went to stay with their father over the Easter weekend, but when Marcelle came to collect them, they had disappeared.
Navratil had decide to take the boys with hium to America. After stopping in Monte Carlo, they sailed to England to board the Titanic at Southampton. He purchased second class tickets (£26) using the assumed name of Louis Hoffman, the boys being booked on as Loto and Louis.
He led his fellow passengers to believe "Mrs. Hoffman" was dead and rarely let the boys out of sight. Once, he allowed himself to relax at a card game and let one of his tablemates, Bertha Lehmann, a Swiss girl who spoke French but no English, to watch the boys for a few hours.
Mr. Navratil wrote to his mother in Hungary, while on board, asking if his sister and her husband could care for the boys; possibly as a backup plan if they couldn't stay in America.
On the night of the sinking, Michel aided by another passenger, dressed the boys and brought them to the boat deck. When Second Officer Charles Lightoller ordered a locked-arms circle of crew members around Collapsible D so that only women and children could get through, Navratil handed the boys through the ring of men. Margaret Hays took care for them in the lifeboat. Michel, Jr., recalled that just before placing him in the boat, his father gave a final message, "My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World."
He perished in the sinking. His body was recovered (#15) with a revolver in his pocket.
NO. 15 - MALE - ESTIMATED AGE 36 - HAIR & MOUSTACHE, BLACKCLOTHING - Grey overcoat with green lining; brown suit.
EFFECTS - Pocket book; 1 gold watch and chain; silver sov. purse containing £6; receipt from Thos. Cook & Co. for notes exchanged; ticket; pipe in case; revolver (loaded); coins; keys, etc; bill for Charing Cross Hotel (Room 126, April 1912).
SECOND CLASS NAME - LOUIS M. HOFFMAN.
Because he had used a Jewish surname on his ticket, Mr. Navratil was initially interred (May 15th, 1912) in the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery which was designated for the Jewish victims. Once his identity was established, he was buried in the Roman Catholic Mt. Olive Cemetery.
The "Navratil Orphans" were sheltered at the New York home of Margaret Hays under the auspices of the Children's Aid society. Marcelle Navratil, recognized her boys from the many newspaper stories about their plight and was brought over to America by the White Star Line where she was reunited with her sons on May 16. The three sailed back to France on the Oceanic.
Contributors
Marta Santiago
Emma Santiago
Sources
Don Lynch & Ken Marschall (1992) Titanic: An Illustrated History
John Eaton & Chares Haas (1994) Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy
The New York Tribune
Johannes Halvorsen Kalvik
Mr Johannes Halvorsen Kalvik (or Kalvig), 21, was born on December 2, 1890, the son of Halvard Gotskalkson Halleland, (1841-1918) and Severine Nilsdotter Kalvik (1841-1911). He spent the first years of his life at their farm alongside the Akrafjorden on the Westcoast of Norway. Johannes had two brothers, Nils and Gotskalk, and two sisters Marta and Anna.
In 1910 Johannes and his brother Nils built a house together in the valley (the house remains in the family). Gotskalk had moved to Montana a few years earlier but died shortly after his arrival there.
Nils was oldest of the brothers and he had a family established as well as business as a carpenter and construction worker. He was also a teacher for a while. Johannes worked with him in the business earning about £35 a year (600 kroners), but the chance to move to America, and maybe his mothers death the year before spured him to use what little money he had on a ticket for Titanic bound, eventually for Iowa.
Shortly before his departure he had photographs taken of himself and his fiancè Anne Berta Austarheim (b.1892) whom he was leaving behind until he was settled in America.went by boat from Haugesund to Newcastle, and from there by train to Southampton where he boarded the new liner. He died in the sinking.
Contributors
Nils Halleland (Grandson of Nils Kalvik)
Per Kristian Sebak
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