Early in November 1919, Melhem Kanso left Veracruz, Mexico aboard a ship bound to Marseilles, France. Shortly after sailing past Havana, Cuba, a powerful storm swept through causing a collision in which the ship caught fire and sank.
In reflecting on the tragic accident, Melhem recalled the terrible moments when he and his fellow passengers clang desperately to rafts and life boats in the midst of darkness and a raging sea. As they roved away, they watched their ship burn and go down to the bottom of the ocean. After some gloomy time of being lost at sea, they were rescued by a steamer that brought them to New York.