Thanks to the efforts of the Titanic International Society and a handful of Boston-area organizations, the grave of Titanic victim Catherine Buckley has finally been marked. Buckley’s memory and story were commemorated Saturday in West Roxbury, Mass., at a ceremony unveiling a headstone bearing her name.
Buckley, 22, was a County Cork farmer’s daughter who was headed to Boston to work alongside her half-sister as a maid in the home of a wealthy West Roxbury merchant. Her sister had emigrated to America a few years earlier. When Buckley’s body was retrieved from the water, she was still wearing a cloth scapular, featuring a hand-stitched cross, pinned to her breast.
Buckley is the only known third-class Irish passenger whose body was buried on land. In a cruel twist of fate, Buckley was supposed to travel directly to Boston on White State Line’s Cymeric. But the sailing was canceled due to a coal miner’s strike and Buckley’s passage was transferred to Titanic.
