Stanley C Jenkins
Member
I have recently been updating a short article which I wrote for my local history society in 1982, and have come across a number of “missing” or unidentified individuals. In general, I am concentrating initially on Oxfordshire people aboard the Titanic, those concerned being John Wesley Woodward, Amy Stanley and James Paintin. Another local passenger who said to have been on the Titanic was George Moran, formerly the landlord of the White Horse pub in Abingdon (then in Berkshire). However, his name does not appear in the lists of passengers published by various newspapers following the disaster — suggesting that there may have been confusion with David Moran of Co.Limerick, who boarded at Queenstown (could they have been the same person?)
A curious article published in The Witney Gazette on 4 May 1912 managed to combine two of the legends connected with the loss of the Titanic — the mysterious “card sharks” and the men-who-dressed-as-women. This article claims that three gamblers escaped in this way, two of them being named as ‘Kid Homer’ and ‘Doc Owen’. I have worked out that Kid Homer was probably first class passenger Harry Homer, but who was Doc Owen. There WAS a character known as Doc Owen on the gambling circuit at that time, but could the name have been used by more than one gambler?
I have also found references to “Armenian” emigrants aboard the ship who do not appear on the passenger lists, notably Neshan Zakarian, Thomas Toumaian, Sarkis Mardirosian, Arsen Siraganian, Apear Muradian, Bedros Yazbegian and Mampre Zakarian. These people would in fact have been Turkish Christians, who were no doubt fleeing from their homeland. A few, but not all Armenians are listed on the passenger lists — could some of these individuals have been stowaways — or were the newsmen and US immigration officials simply confused by their unfamiliar names?
A curious article published in The Witney Gazette on 4 May 1912 managed to combine two of the legends connected with the loss of the Titanic — the mysterious “card sharks” and the men-who-dressed-as-women. This article claims that three gamblers escaped in this way, two of them being named as ‘Kid Homer’ and ‘Doc Owen’. I have worked out that Kid Homer was probably first class passenger Harry Homer, but who was Doc Owen. There WAS a character known as Doc Owen on the gambling circuit at that time, but could the name have been used by more than one gambler?
I have also found references to “Armenian” emigrants aboard the ship who do not appear on the passenger lists, notably Neshan Zakarian, Thomas Toumaian, Sarkis Mardirosian, Arsen Siraganian, Apear Muradian, Bedros Yazbegian and Mampre Zakarian. These people would in fact have been Turkish Christians, who were no doubt fleeing from their homeland. A few, but not all Armenians are listed on the passenger lists — could some of these individuals have been stowaways — or were the newsmen and US immigration officials simply confused by their unfamiliar names?
