Catherine Elizabeth Crosby - Titanic First Class Passenger
Catherine Elizabeth Crosby, traveling home from Europe to her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, was a first class passenger aboard Titanic, occupying cabin B22 with her husband. Along with her husband Captain Edward Gifford Crosby and their 39 year old daughter Harriette Rebecca Crosby, she boarded Titanic at Southampton on 10th April 1912.
Catherine Crosby (née Halstead) was born in Waterloo, New York, United States on 26th October 1847. She married and had three children with Edward Crosby. Her first child, Martha, was born in around 1870, followed by Harriette on 8th October 1872 and by Frederick in around 1882. Martha sadly died in 1880 from Appendicitis. By the time they sailed aboard Titanic she and her family lived at 474 Marshall Street, Milwaukee, and her husband was the owner of a cargo ship company operating on Lake Michigan.
In her written affidavit to the Titanic Inquiry following the disaster, Catherine Crosby noted that, while she and her husband were walking up and down the promenade deck during the afternoon of 14th April 1912, the day Titanic struck the iceberg, members of the crew aboard the ship were taking the temperature of the water, and she said that it was stated that the temperature of the water was cold and it indicated that Titanic was in the vicinity of ice fields.
On the evening Titanic collided with the iceberg, Catherine Crosby went to bed at around 10.30pm, and she was, as she described in her affidavit to the Titanic Inquiry, "suddenly awakened by the thumping of the boat. The engines stopped suddenly." Her husband went out, and when he returned told her the ship was in danger. He then left again; this was the last time she saw him. Her daughter then came to her cabin and said that on deck she had been told to fetch her lifebelt and return to the deck. Catherine Crosby and her daughter then went to the Boat Deck, where they were both placed into the first lifeboat to leave the ship, Lifeboat 7.
Catherine Crosby said that in the lifeboat, after Titanic had sunk, she was suffering from the cold, and a sail was put around her to keep her warm.
Both Catherine Crosby and her daughter survived the sinking. Her husband was lost. His body was recovered and returned home.
Catherine Crosby died in her home, still at 474 Marshall Street, Milwaukee, on 29th October 1920. Her death certificate notes her cause of death as being probably Cerebral Thrombosis, but very possibly a form of Encephalitis Lethargica.
Her funeral was held at her home on 31st July 1920; before she was laid to rest within Fairview Mausoleum, Milwaukee. By around 1996 Fairview Mausoleum had fallen into disrepair and it had been decided that those laid to rest there should be moved and the mausoleum be demolished. The remains of Catherine Crosby, of her husband Edward Crosby and her daughter Harriette Crosby (who died in 1941) were moved from there to be buried at Graceland Cemetery, Milwaukee.
Related pages - Titanic's First Class Passengers, All Titanic Pages