Catherine was travelling with her husband Captain Edward Crosby and their daughter Harriette. 

On the Sunday evening she was awoken by a 'thump' and her husband left their cabin to find out what was happening. He returned to tell his wife and daughter that the ship was badly damaged and then left to investigate further. They did not see him again. The pair boarded a lifeboat at the forward starboard side.

When complaining of the cold on the lifeboat, one sailor wrapped her in a sail.

She died in Milwaukee in 1920.