Maria Abbott

[maria abbott]

Hi, I have been interested in the Titanic for many years.I thought I knew a lot about the Titanic but when I found your pages I was amazed at the vast amount of information available!Is there anyone who can give me any information regarding the Allan line steamship "s/s hesperian"(built glasgow 1908) which was hit by a torpedo and sunk in 1915, I am looking for passenger and crew lists and names of the 32 who died when she was hit,any information you can give me would be appreciated,thank you

 

[Wayne Keen]

I would suggest that you post you question in the other ship and shipwrecks section to give it better exposure.

And welcome. I find it fascinating the number of serious historians one finds here. New information about an incredible variety of shipping topics all the time.

Enjoy!

Wayne

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hello Maria,

Welcome aboard. I created a thread for you, so that you have your own and moved your post to here. This is the best place to discuss all things Titanic.

See you around the board.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Hallo, Maria. In case you haven't seen it, here's a link to a web page with basic info about the loss of the Hesperian and details of a few of the passengers:

http://www.medievalhistory.net/hesper~n.htm

You can obtain the casualty list for the crew by applying to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission or to Trinity House. If in London, you can read the inscriptions direct on the Tower Hill Memorial to merchant seamen lost in the two world wars. The names are grouped together for each ship and the ships are listed alphabetically. There certainly was at least one crew victim. That was stewardess Eliza Kennedy (nee Drake), a 56-year old widow from Tranmere.

Are you looking for any particular person or family?
.

 

[Peter Threlfall]

Dear Maria,
I took many photographs of the Tower Hill Memorial, London, a few years ago. You are more than welcome to the negatives of those photo's if you so require them. I also have a number of detail's of a couple of crew members who came from Birkenhead (my home town), Merseyside, England, as I am currently compiling biographies of all those who are commemorated on my town war memorial from the Great War. In case you didnt know, the S.S. Hesperian was 10920 Grt., and built in 1908. She was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic 85 miles S.W. by S. from the Fastnet Rock, by the German submarine U.20 (the same u-boat that had sunk the Lusitania), on 4th September, 1915, whilst on voyage from Liverpool to Montreal with general cargo. 32 lives were lost. If you know the name of the Captain of the Hesperian, you can get some of his service detail's from the Guild Hall Library, London, BUT BE WARNED ! They charge an arm and a leg ! If it is just a one-off request, they may well just send you the detail's, but add that they normally will charge £20-£50 for a search ! If you have any Royal Marines on board, their service papers can be aquired from the National Archives, Kew, London. Once you have a complete list of the crewmen lost, and have their detail's (as Bob Godfrey suggested)from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, you can then start to write off to the libraries of their home town's to see if there are any newspaper articles about them, which are alway's good to have. If you have a list of crew survivors, don't just think that because they survived that sinking, that they survived any subsequent sinking's. Check the C.W.G.C. website for people of the same names as these "survivors".....you might be surprised to find that one or two more may have been lost at sea after the Hesperian. If any of the survivor's were lucky to come through the Great War, and stay in the Mercantile Marine, there are Identification Certificates to all Mercantile Marine men, which were started in October, 1918. These have dates of birth, place of birth, seaman's number, and a photograph. If I can be of any help of any kind, please dont hesitate to contact me.

All the best,


Pete Threlfall

 

[maria abbott]

Hi, thank you very much for all the information! I have some /letters/papers/photographs from the allan line s.s hesperian that I wish to research,I am trying to find all I can about a crew member who sailed on her maiden voyage "matthew jamieson" .I am not an expert by any means,but thank you for pointing me in the right direction!I will get back to you when I find out more.kind regards Maria