Farīd Husayn Qāsim Al-Munà

Biography
Mr. Farīd Husayn Qāsim Al-Munà was born in 1893 in the small mountain village of Shānā, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon.

Farīd spent his whole life in Shānā and in 1912, was working as a farmhand in the community. In 1910, his cousin Nasīf Qāsim Abī-Al-Munà, who had been living in the United States since 1903, had returned to Shānā to visit his parents. While in Shānā, it is believed that Nasīf opened up about living the American Dream to young Farīd and, therefore, convincing him to move to the United States too. They would be joined by two other relatives; Farīda Ibrāhīm, Nasīf's cousin, and her eleven-year-old son Husayn Mahmūd Ibrāhīm.

On a late March morning, the group left on a horse-drawn gharry to Bayrūt where they boarded a ship that would take them all the way across the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. There, they had to undergo physical examinations by French officials. All but Farīda passed the examination. It was discovered that the woman had trachoma, a contagious bacterial eye infection. She was forced to get back to Bayrūt on the first ship that would arrive to port, separating her from her son Husayn who cried in fear as his mother was taken away. For the rest of the journey, Nasīf and Farīd had full responsibility of little Husayn.

Once in Marseille, the group learned about a ship that would leave in three days from Cherbourg, Normandie, France. So they took a train and travelled to Paris where they stayed until the day of the departure of their ship. From there, they took a last train to Cherbourg where Farīd bought ticket number 2700, which cost him £7 4s 7d, and on Wednesday, April 10th, 1912, the group boarded the S.S. Traffic which took them to the beautiful R.M.S. Titanic. Once on board, the group was amazed by how beautiful Titanic was. Nasīf described the ship as "Being more like Broadway than Broadway itself!". Nasīf and Husayn shared a cabin together at the poop of the ship where the women, children and families were staying, while Farīd was placed at the bow of the ship with the other single men. Farīd perished in the sinking and it is strongly believed that he got locked down in steerage with the other third class men where he drowned. His body, if recovered, was never identified.