Mrs Elin Matilda Hakkarainen (née Dolck)
Mrs Pekka Pietari Hakkarainen (Elin Matilda Dolck), 24, was travelling to Monessen, PA from Helsinki, Finland with her husband Pekka Hakkarainen. She was originally from Quincy, Massachusetts, where she had worked as a domestic servant for 4 years. Pekka had lived in Monessen, Pennsylvania, where he had worked for $5 a day as a foreman in a steel mill. They had been married in Finland on January 15, 1912, but the trip to America was planned long before that. The couple was fleeing Finland, because if they stayed, Pekka would have been forced to serve in the Russian army. They had meant to travel on the Mauretania, but changed their mind and boarded the Titanic at Southampton.
The couple were woken by the collision which she described as a strong vibration and a scratching noise. Pekka got up to investigate while Elin returned to bed.
She fell asleep again but woke some time later. Pekka had not returned and when some of her friends knocked on the door she rose. Elin had had no time to dress properly but she grabbed her handbag and life preserver and hurried to the corridor, all the stairway gates appeared to be locked, but, at last, she noticed a steward coming to collect a group of steerage passengers, guiding them to the boat
deck. Elin looked for her husband on deck but an officer came up and told her that there was space for one more woman in a nearby boat (15).
The boat was already on its way down and she almost fell between the boat between lifeboat and the ship side, before someone grabbed her in her hand and pulled her into the boat.
Pekka's body was never found, Elin later received £50 in compensation.
After her arival in New York Elin was destitute and she was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital. After a few days she continued to Monessen. In 1917 she moved to Weirton, West Virginia where she met and married Emil Nummi. They had a son Gerald Nummi.
Elin died 1957.
References
Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0
Boarding pass replica, Franklin Institute Science Museum, produced by RMS. Titanic, inc.
Acknowledgements
Claes-Göran Wetterholm, Sweden
Juho Peltonen, Finland
Leif Snellman, Finland
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