Henry Samuel Morley (Mr Henry Marshall)

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

I am originally from Papua New Guinea living in Australia. Henry Samuel Morley may have been my great grandfather. He sailed to the Milne Bay Islands in Papua New Guinea in early 1913/1914 and there he met a young chief's daughter, married her and had 5 children. According to my grandmother when all the children were born he had changed all their birth dates so that the records couldn't be traced back. There were no photos of him because he didn't want any pictures taken of him. He told his children where he was from and the life that he had back in England and as a passenger on the titanic.
Henry Samuel Morley is recorded as father to these five children and use his name to this day.
It is said he died in the sinking and his body never recovered. Is it possible that he may have somehow got on a ship somewhere without anyone knowing and sailed to Papua New Guinea? Is it possible that he didn't want anyone to know that he was alive?
Apparently he was eloping with Kate Florence Phillips who was on the same ticket with him. He had left a wife and child back in England.
Would anyone have any information on Henry Samuel Morley or how I could find out if this is all true.

Henry Samuel Morley may have been my great grandfather, I was wondering if you would be able to provide me more information on if his body was ever found etc..

 

[Dave Gittins]

It's a good yarn, but it ranks with the Grimm brothers. Survivors of Titanic were recorded by the American immigration authorities. The Americans took immigration seriously. The records are online at NARA and Ellis Island. Phoney Titanic survivors are found all over the world. I've got three, just in Adelaide SA. I must say none of their stories are as much fun as yours.

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

Thank you for your reply but it doesn't shed any new information on the identity of my great grand father. However in reply to your scepticism every great disaster man-made or natural, it is believed that a small percentage of survivors probably up to 3% use disasters to escape and change their lives completely.
I don't doubt for a second that there are phonies out there eg: the holocaust. But there are people out there that use the experience to escape their lives.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

That's true, Fiona, but the difference in the case of the Titanic wreck is that there was no opportunity to quietly disappear un-noticed, as there would be after a disaster that happened on or least close to land, like a train wreck or an earthquake. Nobody could have survived the Titanic without being in a lifeboat and thereafter becoming a centre of attention on the rescue ship and, as Dave said, nobody got ashore from the Carpathia at New York without undergoing the strict formalities demanded by immigration laws. Everybody in the lifeboats was taken aboard that one ship, and anybody who didn't make it to a boat within minutes would have been dead from exposure long before any other means of rescue arrived on the scene. I know that's not the answer you were hoping for, but it's the only one that fits the facts.
.

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

Alot of what you say is correct however Morley boarded the Titanic under the assumed name of "Henry Marshall" Whats to say he didn't use another assumed name on the Carpathia, his identity went down with the ship. Don't forget this man was hiding out in the pacific, an extremely isolated place in the first half of the century. He only told his 5 children and had never boasted about it to anyone. The only way to prove conclusively that this really happened, is to find a surviving relative in England and dig up Morley's remains on Woodluk Island and do a DNA test. We know thats never going to happen, all we know is the story he told his children. After all that's how history is past from one generation to the next in a primitive culture.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Hallo Fiona -

The problem with that scenario is that one still has to reconcile the names of those who boarded with those who arrived in the New York, and identify whose name he supposedly appropriated. Who do you think that could be? Most single male survivors have been extensively investigated in their post-Titanic lives. He also would have had to have avoided anyone on board the 'Carpathia' who had met him, and hoped that Kate Phillips didn't spot him!

Another scenario is that your g-grandfather may have known Morely (or known of him) and, if he had some element of his background he wished to conceal, adopted this anecdote as a means of explaining to his children why he had gone underground.

I envy your family's PNG background, though - if I were going to escape anywhere, Milne Bay would be high on the list (or Kavieng). Splendid diving up around there. My grandmother, mother and aunt spent many years in Port Moresby.

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

Everything you have said is possible and it could have happened-That's what I am trying to find out the TRUTH.
I have also researched the Australian Archives when his name came up with 'maybes' and 'probably".

Yes Milne Bay is beautiful and the diving is awesome. My parents live on an island called Panapompom which was an American base during the second world war. There is a Japanese wreck nearby possibly a fighter aeroplane which is still a popular place to snorkel.

 

[Mrs Deborah Jane Allen]

This is facinating! I'm trying to put everything together listening to my grandmother speaking about our family history. Morley being her Uncle. Her Gran having the titanic pension for him, his mistriss he went on the titanic with, the baby she had, and now he may of survived? If he did survive the DNA of his 5 children could still be proven with mine but i'm finding the whole story amazing.

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

I have a couple of pictures of my grandmother before she died a few years ago. There is a strong resemblance of Betty Walker and my grandmother Ethel Morley. My grandmother was the 4th child out of 5 children.

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

 

[Fiona Ethel May Arek]

 

[beverley lynn farmer]

I am absolutely fansinated by all of this as Kate Florence Phillips was my Great Grandmother. It would be great if we could all sort this out together. As i would love to know if Henry Samuel Morley was indeed my Great Grandfather too. My Grandma sadly died and it can't just end there. Help! Beverley