, he instead decided to go back to his native Haiti, where his well connected uncle, President Cincinnatus Leconte, promised him a professorship in maths. And so they found themselves on the Titanic. From New York, the doomed ship's destination, they hoped to take another ship to Haiti. But in the early hours of April 15 1912, disaster struck. The ship that 'god himself couldn't sink' hit an iceberg which left a massive gash){kind=link}
Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche died after making sure his family, including his pregnant wife, were aboard one of the few life rafts available. The last words he spoke to them was promising he would see them soon
When most people think of love stories connected to the Titanic it’s obviously the fictional Jack and Rose that come to mind but sometimes fact is stranger than fiction and the forgotten story of the only Black man on that doomed ship could break even more hearts.
Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche, a Haitian native, ended up on the RMS Titanic thanks to a cruel twist of fate. He, his wife and his two daughters were originally going to sail to Haiti on a ship called La France. But due to the ship’s policy of separating parents and children, they chose a different ship so they could stay with their daughters, one of whom often fell sick.
So instead they swapped their first-class tickets on that first ship for second-class tickets on RMS Titanic.
Joseph was born in 1886 in Haiti, a former French colony, and at the age of 15 he went to France to study engineering. After getting his degree he married Juliette Lafargue, a white French woman, who he met through a mentor. They started building a family but struggled due to the rampant racism at the time which meant he often had difficulty finding work and when he did would get far less pay than deserved for a man of his education.