Greta Lorenson and her brother

Greta Lorenson travelled as a saloon class passenger. She was a maid to the Pearl family. I read in The Lusitania Resource that her brother died on the Titanic. Who was he?

All the best,

Delia
happy.gif
 
Hi Delia,

That's the info I got from Des Hickey and Gus Smith's book, "Seven Days to Disaster." They got their information from correspondence with survivors, including fellow Pearl nurse Alice Lines. Alice didn't mention this in her earlier accounts, so it's possible that Greta may have invented it or it's something Alice heard and misinterpreted.

I haven't been able to find other information to confirm that Greta had a brother on the Titanic, so I might have to remove it as being an inaccuracy.
 
Thank you for info, Ren!
If Greta really had a brother on the Titanic, he had another surname. But I agree with you that Alice Lines made a mistake.

All the best,

Delia
happy.gif
 
During my visits with Alice Lines over the years, we had a number of very interesting discussions about Greta and her family. Alice and Greta were very close, and when I specifically asked Alice about whether Greta had a brother who was lost on Titanic, she was surprised and told me that she had never heard that from Greta. Alice was very clear on that point.

If the story is true, which I doubt, it seems clear that Hickey and Smith did not get the information from Alice. I think they simply got it wrong -- again!

Eric Sauder
 
So who did tell that Greta's brother died on the Titanic? When Hickey and Smith were writing their book, they couldn't to fabricate these infos.

All the best,

Delia
happy.gif
 
Delia:

Authors fabricate a lot to make the stories better. Hickey and Smith got some other things wrong as well. Where did they get their information about Greta and her brother? I have no idea, but I can say with near certainty that it wasn't from Alice. They didn't bother checking some of their other facts before going to press either.

"Exploring the Lusitania" is another example of what's wrong when people who don't know a subject write books. The book was written by a novelist, Spencer Dumore, not a historian. He wasn't even interested in the subject. It was just a job to him. As a novelist, he had a very bad habit of inventing conversations and "facts" to improve the readability of the story. Although I offered him total access to my years of research, he called me exactly once at the start of the project. The rest of his information was taken from previously written books. As far as I know, he did absolutely no original research whatsoever.

Dumore even transfered poor research and errors from other people's books to his. That's how I know where he copied from. I did my best to correct as many mistakes as I could, but I was told on more than one occasion by the editor that no one would notice! Grrr....

Eric Sauder
 
Back
Top