My novel Sheltering Angel, based on a true story of the Titanic, includes several actual passengers of the unlucky ship. Let me introduce you to Haitian engineer Joseph Philippe Laroche, the only black passenger aboard.

Early Life

Born in 1886, Laroche showed promise at a young age and at fifteen, his mother sent him to France to study engineering. Young Joseph was dashing with a kindly expression beneath a pencil-thin mustache. In Beauvais he caught the eye of a beautiful French woman, Juliette Marie Louise Lafargue. Juliette had a robust figure and serious eyes under dark brows. At nineteen, Juliet was at a marriageable age. Her widowed father, a wine merchant, had no objection to the interracial relationship, and the couple married in 1908 when Joseph was twenty-two and had finished his degree.

Racial discrimination

Because of his race, Joseph could not find work and he and Juliette lived off the generosity of her father. Their daughter Simonne was born in early 1909 and a second daughter, Louise, appeared prematurely in the summer of 1910. Louise needed expensive medical treatments, and rather than accept more support from his father-in-law, Joseph decided to take the family to Haiti where expenses would be lower. He would have family there to help with the children, and he could earn a decent living. His uncle, Cincinnatus Leconte, was the President of Haiti and would arrange a job for Joseph as a math teacher.

The Titanic

As a gift to welcome her son and his family back to Haiti, Joseph’s mother purchased first-class tickets for them on the steamship La France scheduled to sail in early 1913. In March 1912, Juliette discovered she was pregnant and thought an earlier voyage would avoid any complications that might arise on a later sail. And she wanted her third child would be born in Haiti.

Joseph turned in his tickets and booked passage aboard Titanic leaving in April. Surely a maiden voyage would make for a memorable experience, he thought. Because the ship didn’t allow children in first class, they chose second-class booking so their daughters could stay with them.

On the evening of April 10, the Laroche family boarded White Star Line’s newest ship,  Titanic and settled into their cabin. On the evening of April 14, Joseph, Juliette, and their daughters went to the dining hall for dinner and listened to the ship’s orchestra before retiring early to their cabin. Something was bothering Joseph, and his sat up keeping watch over his family until late into the night.

That evening he heard the screech of ice scraping metal and felt the quiver of the engines stop. When the stewards called passengers to the lifeboat deck, Joseph woke Juliette and told her the ship had suffered an accident and it appeared to be serious. Juliette insisted she and Joseph stay in their cabin with their sleeping children, but Joseph stuffed his pockets with their valuables, bundled Simonne into a blanket, and ordered Juliette to do the same with Louise. Then he led the family up ladders to the boat deck. The maritime rule was women and children first, and Joseph helped Juliette and his daughters into lifeboat number 10 while he stayed with first and second-class men aboard the sinking ship. It was the last time his family was to see him.

The Rescue

On the morning of April 15, Juliette and her daughters were rescued by RMS Carpathia.
The young sisters were hauled up to the deck in burlap bags. They was no sign of Joseph aboard the rescue vessel or in the water.

Carpathia arrived in New York City on April 18. No one greeted Juliette and her children. Certain her husband had perished, in her grief she decided to return to her own family in France rather than continue on to Haiti. At her parents’ home in Villejuif, she gave birth to a son. In honor of the boy’s late father, she named him Joseph. The body of Joseph Philippe Laroche was never found.

The Aftermath

LaRoche, a three-act opera by composer Sharon Willis, is based on Joseph’s life and premiered as part of the National Black Arts Festival in July 2003 at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center.

Louise Laroche, the last surviving member of the Laroche family, died in early 1998 at the age of 87. At the time of her death only six Titanic survivors were still alive.