Mr Arthur Keefe

Arthur Keefe

Mr Arthur Keefe, 39, resided in Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.A., where he and his sister, Margaret O'Brien, ran a small store.

Keefe was returning home after a two month trip to Ireland, Scotland and England. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a third class passenger (ticket number 323592, £7, 5s).

Although Keefe is thought to have made it to Collapsible A, he died during the night 1.

In the days after the sinking, Ms. O'Brien spent several days in Halifax in a vain attempt to locate Mr. Keefe's body among those recovered by the Mackay-Bennett.

Mr. Keefe was not married, and Ms. O'Brien subsequently applied for administration of Mr. Keefe's estate. Her application to the Surrogate of Union County, New Jersey, gave Mr. Keefe's surname as "O'Keefe" and stated that his assets amounted to less than $350, although a contemporary local newspaper account described him as "quite an extensive property owner."

There is a memorial stone to Keefe at St. Mary's Cemetery in Rahway, N. J.

(© Dennis Foley, USA)

Notes
1. It has been suggested that he was the passenger Olaus Abelseth tried to revive and that his was one of the three bodies left in the boat when Officer Lowe arrived to transfer her survivors. A month after the sinking the Oceanic came across the drifting Collapsible A, the three bodies were recovered and buried at sea.

Documents
Elizabeth Daily Journal, 18 April 1912, Rahway Man on Lost Ship
Elizabeth Daily Journal, 20 April 1912, Sad News Causes Collapse
Elizabeth Daily Journal, 11 May 1912, Fails To Find Brother Among Titanic’s Dead
Administration of the Estate of Arthur O'Keefe

References
Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
Marriages, births, deaths and injuries that have occurred on board during the voyage (PRO London, BT 100/259-260)
Union County, New Jersey, Surrogate's Court records;
Walter Lord (1976) A Night to Remember. London, Penguin. ISBN 0 14 004757 3

Contributors
Mark Baber, USA
Dennis Foley, USA
Phillip Gowan, USA