Helena Wilhelmina Rosblom

Helena Wilhelmina Rosblom was a passenger on *Titanic*.

## Early life

On April 22, 1870 Helena Wilhelmina Raula was born in Finland, on the Samuel Hunsala farm in the village of Ylikeeri in Lappi, neighboring parish to Raumo. Her parents were the farmer Gustaf Raula and his wife Ulrika Wilhelmina Gabrielsdotter. Helena was baptized on April 23. She had two olders brothers: Gustaf Reinhold, born in 1863, and Karl Wiktor, born in 1865. Her half-sister was Ida Heinonen.

In 1893 she was married to Viktor Rosblom. They would have 3 children, although there are still mysteries surrounding a possible fourth child, named Marta Vilhelmina, who was conceived at Simula, Raumo on 7 March 1903. Either way, their official children were: Viktor Rikard, born in 1894, Eino Wilhelm, born on February 2, 1900 and the youngest was Salli Helena, born in February 1910.

Helena's husband Viktor had been in the US before. First he had spent the years 1905-1908 there. He arrived in New York on 5 February 1905 on the *Oceanic*, which departed from Liverpool on 1 February. He was on his way to his friend Juho Heinonen in New York.

In 1910 he returned to America. He arrived in New York on 31 March 1910 on the *Adriatic*, which departed from Southampton on 23 March. He was on his way to Rock Springs, Wyoming.

However, he did not settle in Rock Springs, but eventually settled in Astoria, Oregon. Helena and two of the three children, Viktor, age 18, and Salli, age 2, were on their way to Seaside or Astoria to join him. Helena left Raumo on March 23, 1912, without ten-year-old son Eino. He refused to come along but stayed behind in Raumo. Ironically, he said he didn't want to drown. He could not have known how right he would be.

## *Titanic*

They originally had tickets for the *Olympic* and would have arrived in New York on April 10 if they had made it on board that ship. However, that was not to be, because Salli fell ill in Southampton and the family could not travel as planned. They had to wait a bit and were booked onto the *Titanic* instead. Their names are still on the passenger list of the *Olympic* but they are crossed out.

Helena was 41 years old when she boarded the RMS *Titanic* with her children in Southampton. Their destination was listed as Seaside, Orego. They traveled in Third Class.

On April 14, the ship had struck an iceberg 20 minutes before midnight. It became clear that she would sink after an inspection was carried out by the captain and the shipbuilder. Evacuation followed, but it's unknown how Helena and her children faired when the lifeboats were launched. The ship foundered at 2:20 A.M. and they were lost in the disaster, their bodies were never found.

It took a full two weeks before husband Viktor received a message that they had not gone with *Olympic* as intended. It was when the family didn't show up in Astoria that he started researching the matter and finally found that they had been aboard the *Titanic* and had not survived.

## After her death

On June 8, 1912, son Eino in Raumo received a telegram telling about the tragedy. Husband Viktor received £100 in damages.

The son Eino, who refused to travel with the family for fear of drowning, still went over in the end. On 12 March 1914, still  a 13 year old, he departed Liverpool with Cedric and arrived in New York on 22 March. His father would remarry later and live with his son in Seaside, Oregan untill 1933. Their last name would be Englisized to Ross. After his father died, Eino found love and lived together with a Finnish lady named Hilma Hannelius.