Lusitania (2 page)
Authors: Greg King
In this book, readers will encounter a number of figures indicating costs of travel, personal fortunes, and amounts paid for various parties. We have given these as contemporary sums, but here include a modern rendering of current valuation, following the formula that a 1915 $1 is equal to $23 today; the exchange rate of dollars to pounds sterling in 1915 was $1 = £4.70. Even so, these figures are approximations. Owing to inflation and taxation, the actual purchasing power of any given sum in 1915 would have been much greater than it is a century later.
For
Lusitania
’s last voyage, Cunard had reduced Second Class fares from the usual $70 to $50 ($1,610 and $1,150, respectively, in 2015 figures). A typical First Class fare began at roughly $115 ($2,645 in 2015 currency); it cost approximately $1,500 ($34,500 in 2015), each way, to stay in one of the ship’s Parlor Suites; a passenger who booked one of her two Regal Suites could expect to spend approximately $2,250 ($51,750 in 2015), one way.
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A look at some typical 1915 costs helps set these figures in perspective. The average annual household income for a professional in America was some $2,000 ($46,000 in 2015 figures); most people, though, earned less than half of this. A Ford would set the buyer back by $490 ($11,270 in 2015), although most good quality motorcars began at well over $1,000 ($23,000 in 2015). A luxurious apartment in New York City might run between $3,000 and $5,000 ($69,000–$115,000 in 2015 currency) a year; bed and board in a respectable lodging house cost approximately $5 ($115 in 2015) a week, while one could rent a room in a squalid tenement for just $1 ($23) a month. A good dinner at a fashionable New York City restaurant like Delmonico’s began at $3 ($69) per person, including wine. A men’s suit from Lord & Taylor might cost $17.50 ($172.50 in 2015); an unpretentious dress might go for $2–$4 ($46–$92), with upwards of $125 ($2,875) spent on a fashionable dress from Paris. A pair of good ladies’ shoes began at $4.25 ($97.75), while ladies’ silk stockings started at 25 cents a pair ($5.75); a child’s velvet playsuit could be had for $2.95 ($67.85); it took $650 ($14,950) to buy a grand piano. A 32-ounce box of corn flakes cost 8 cents ($1.84); a can of sliced peaches went for 22 cents ($5.06); a smoked ham sold for 15 cents a pound ($3.45); an oak desk could be purchased for $35 ($805), while a good-quality metal bed might run $3.95 ($90.85); and a pack of ten cigarettes could be had for a nickel.
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FIRST (SALOON) CLASS PASSENGERS ABOARD
LUSITANIA
Adams, Annie,
age 46, British, traveling with her British husband, Henry (58), to return home.
Adams, William,
age 19, American, traveling with his father to enlist in British Army.
Allan, Lady H. Montague (Marguerite),
age 47, British Canadian, traveling with her two daughters, Anna (16) and Gwendolyn (15), and with maids Emily Davis and Annie Walker, to establish army hospital in England.
Baker, Amelia (Millie),
age 27, American, traveling with Charles Williamson to Paris.
Bates, Lindon W. Jr.,
age 31, American, traveling to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Bernard, Oliver,
age 34, British, escorting Stewart and Leslie Mason and returning home to London.
Bilicke, Albert,
age 54, American, traveling with his wife, Gladys (48), on holiday.
Boulton, Denis Duncan Harold Owen (Harold),
age 22, British, returning to Europe hoping to join French Red Cross.
Braithwaite, Dorothy,
age 24, British Canadian, traveling to be with her widowed sisters.
Brandell, Josephine,
age 23, American opera singer.
Brooks, James (Jay),
age 41, American, traveling on business.
Brown, Mary,
age 55, American, traveling with her daughter, Beatrice Witherbee, and grandson Alfred Witherbee to reunite with family.
Burnside, Josephine,
age 49, British Canadian, traveling with her daughter, Iris (20), to see her estranged husband.
Byrne, Michael,
age 47, American, traveling on business.
Conner, Dorothy,
age 25, American, traveling with her brother-in-law, Dr. Howard Fisher, to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Depage, Marie,
age 43, Belgian, traveling with Dr. James Houghton to return to war relief efforts in Belgium.
Dunsmuir, James A. Jr.,
age 21, British Canadian, traveling to enlist in British Army.
Fisher, Dr. Howard,
age 49, American, traveling with his sister-in-law, Dorothy Conner, to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Forman, Justus,
age 39, American, traveling with Charles Frohman party.
Freeman, Richard,
age 28, American, college friend of Dr. James Houghton.
Friend, Edwin,
age 28, American, traveling with Theodate Pope to meet English spiritualists.
Frohman, Charles,
age 58, American, traveling on theatrical business.
Gorer, Edgar,
age 43, British, returning to London.
Hammond, Ogden,
age 46, American, traveling with his wife, Mary (29), to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Holt, William Robert Grattan (Robert),
age 15, British Canadian, returning to school.
Home, Thomas,
age 50, British Canadian, traveling on business.
Houghton, Dr. James T.,
age 29, American, traveling with Marie Depage to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Hubbard, Elbert,
age 58, American, traveling with his wife, Alice (53), hoping to interview Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Jeffery, Charles,
age 39, American, traveling to sell his tanks to France.
Jenkins, Francis,
age 29, British, traveling on business.
Jolivet, Marguerite (Rita),
age 25, French, traveling to see her brother.
Kessler, George,
age 52, American, traveling on business.
Klein, Charles,
age 48, British, traveling with Charles Frohman party.
Lane, Sir Hugh,
age 39, British Irish, traveling on business.
Lassetter, Elisabeth,
age 43, British Australian, traveling with her son, Frederic (22), returning to his regiment.
Lauriat, Charles,
age 40, American, traveling on business.
Lehmann, Isaac,
age 36, American, traveling on business.
Loney, Allen,
age 43, American, traveling with his wife, Catherine (37), and daughter, Virginia (15), to work for British Red Cross.
Mackworth, Lady Humphrey (Margaret),
age 32, British, traveling with her father, D. A. Thomas (59), and his secretary, Arnold Rhys-Evans (23), returning home from business trip.
Mason, Stewart,
age 30, British, traveling with his new wife, Leslie (28), escorted by Oliver Bernard, on honeymoon.
Moodie, Ralph,
age 26, British, traveling with fellow cotton broker Robert Timmis on business.
Orr-Lewis, Frederick,
age 49, British Canadian, traveling with his valet, George Slingsby (26), on business.
Papadopoulos, Michael,
age 43, Greek, traveling with his wife, Angela (32), returning home from business trip.
Pearl, Frederick (Warren),
age 46, American, traveling with his wife, Amy (34), their four children, Stuart (5), Amy (2), Susan (1), and Audrey (3 months), and two nurses, British Alice Lines (18) and Danish Greta Lorenson (23), to join Red Cross relief.
Pirie, Robinson,
age 59, British Canadian, traveling on business.
Pope, Theodate,
age 48, American, traveling with Edwin Friend and with her maid, Emily Robinson, to meet English spiritualists.
Ryerson, Mary,
age 56, British Canadian, traveling with her daughter, Laura (23), to see wounded son.
Schwabacher, Leo,
age 43, American, traveling with Henry Sonneborn.
Slidell, Thomas,
age 41, American, journalist traveling on business.
Smith, Jessie Taft,
age 39, American, traveling to bring her husband plans for a military aircraft engine.
Sonneborn, Henry,
age 43, American, traveling with Leo Schwabacher.
Stephens, Frances,
age 64, British Canadian, traveling with her grandson, John (18 months), to see wounded son.
Timmis, Robert,
age 51, British, traveling with fellow cotton broker Ralph Moodie on business.
Vanderbilt, Alfred,
age 37, American, traveling with valet Ronald Denyer (30) to donate to British Red Cross.
Vernon, George (Butler),
age 45, British, brother-in-law of Rita Jolivet, traveling to secure Russian munitions contract.
Williamson, Charles,
age 44, American, traveling with Amelia Baker to Paris.
Witherbee, Beatrice (Trixie),
age 24, American, traveling with mother, Mary Brown, and son, Alfred Witherbee Jr. (3), to reunite with family.
SECOND CLASS PASSENGERS ABOARD
LUSITANIA
Amory, Phoebe,
age 65, British Canadian, traveling to see sons serving in the war.
Anderson, Emily,
age 24, British, traveling with her daughter, Barbara (nearly 3), to reunite with family and obtain medical treatment.
Cowper, Ernest,
age 32, British Canadian, journalist traveling on business.
Dolphin, Avis,
age 12, British Canadian, traveling with nurse Hilda Ellis to attend school in England.
Foss, Dr. Carl,
age 27, American, traveling to join war relief efforts in Belgium.
Holbourn, Ian,
age 43, British, returning home.
Meriheina, William,
age 26, Russian, traveling on business.
Naish, Belle,
age 49, American, traveling with her husband, Theodore (59), to meet his family.
OFFICERS AND CREW ABOARD
LUSITANIA
Anderson, James (Jock),
age 48, British, staff captain.
Bestic, Albert,
age 24, British Irish, junior third officer.
Gadd, Lott,
age 45, British,
Lusitania
barber.
Hawkins, Handel,
age 25, British, cellist in
Lusitania
’s band.
Lewis, John Idwal,
age 29, British, senior third officer.
McCubbin, James,
age 62, British, purser
.
Morton, Leslie,
age 18, British, signed on
Lusitania
as an able-bodied seaman with his brother, John (21).
Turner, William Thomas,
age 58, British, captain of
Lusitania.
INTERESTED PARTIES
Churchill, Winston,
First Lord of the British Admiralty.
Fisher, Admiral Sir John (Jackie),
First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty.
Horgan, John J.,
conducted first inquiry into the sinking as coroner at Kinsale, Ireland.
Mayer, Judge Julius,
presided over American
Lusitania
liability trial, 1918.
Mersey, John Bigham,
Lord, presided over the official British Board of Trade Inquiry into the sinking of
Lusitania.
Schwieger, Kapitänleutnant Walther von,
age 30, captain of U-20.
Sumner, Charles,
Cunard Line agent in New York City.