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S. S. Cameronia, The Ship and List of Transfers

The S. S. Cameronia was an Anchor Line ship taken over by the British Government as it was about to sail from New York on Saturday, 1 May 1915.  As a result, all of her passengers were transferred to the Lusitania, also departing on that day.  These last-minute transfers delayed the Lusitania’s departure by 2 ½ hours.  Information about the Cameronia is contradicted by Simpson’s book, which said that 70 or so passengers and crew came over from the S.S. Queen Margaret the night before the Lusitania sailed.  Per Simpson, "The passengers comprised sixty-seven men and two women, one of them with a baby.  They were accommodated on E deck and none of them appear to have survived" (110).

The entire quote above, in light of further research, is entirely wrong.  So is the assertion following the quote saying a number of the transfers were a contingent of Canadian troops under the command of Lieutenant Robert Matthews heading for England out of the United States, in violation of the latter country's neutrality.  Lusitania researcher Paul Latimer found that Simpson's alleged troop contingents, including the Matthewses and the Palmer family, were never transfers at all and were always Lusitania passengers.

The Queen Margaret transfer is not mentioned anywhere else, and is actually contradicted in Bailey/Ryan, which states that the said ship was a non-passenger carrying cargo ship that left 2 days prior to Lusitania's sailing.  On the other hand, Hoehling/Hoehling notes that 41 passengers from the Cameronia were transferred to saloon and second cabin and most of the 41 were "enormously pleased" (34).  

Why wouldn't the passengers have been pleased?  After all, the Lusitania was larger, safer, and faster.  Traveling by Lusitania would mean arriving in Liverpool four days ahead of the Cameronia, had the latter not been requisitioned.  Ironically, the requisition of the Cameronia and the transfer of her passengers to the Lusitania not only added to the disaster's death toll, but had the Lusitania not been delayed 2 ½ hours because of the transfer it would have been entirely possible that the Lusitania and U-20 would have missed each other that fateful day on the Celtic Sea.

List of Transfers Saloon Class Second Cabin Crew Erroneously Thought of as Transfers A Brief History of the Cameronia Cameronia Facts and Figures

List of Transfers

Below is a list of 44 of 41 names.  If any of these names included shouldn't be, please e-mail.  Hildo Thiel has (again) porvided a more complete list than previously.

Italics denote survivor; asterisk (*) denotes that I haven't been able to verify if there were transfers.

Saloon Class
BURGESS, Mr. Henry George
BUSWELL, Mr. Peter
GIBSON, Mr. Matthew Orr
MILLER, Capt. James Blaine
OSBOURNE, Mrs. T. O. (Irene)
STUART, Mr. Alexander
WRIGHT, Mr. Robert Currie

Second Cabin
AITKEN, Mr. James
AITKEN, Mr. Jarvis (Jarvie)
AITKEN, Master Jarvis, Jr.
AITKEN, Miss Chrissie
ALLEN, Mr. John
BRYCE, Mr. Hugh B.
BRYCE, Mrs. Hugh B. (Arabella)
BUCHANAN, Miss Mary
CATHERWOOD, Mr. John
CATHERWOOD, Mrs. John (Maria Carson)
DINGLEY, Mrs. Howard (Catherine S. Glenn)
FRENCH, Miss Grace Hope
GALLIGAN, Miss Margaret
HAMILTON, Mrs. John (Isabella Murrhead)
HORSBURGH, Miss Martha
HUNTER, Mr. George H.
HUNTER, Mrs. George H. (Maggie)
LEE, Miss Bridget
*McCLURE, Miss Margaret
*McHARDY, Mrs. Annie
PIRIE, Mrs. Annie
PIRIE, Miss Margaret
PIRIE, Master Arthur
PROUDFOOT, Mr. Samuel Lamond
*REID, Mr. Peter
*ROBERTSON, Mr. Andrew
SHINEMAN, Mr. James
SHINEMAN, Mrs. James (Margaret McKenzie)
TIERNEY, Mrs. James (Mary)
TIERNEY, Nina

The New York Times had reported a Margaret Gallagher from second cabin as being saved.  This is probably the same person as Margaret Galligan.

Crew
CRAIGIE, Mrs. Margaret                         [Stewardess]
McGREGOR, Miss Agnes                         [Stewardess]
LEITCH, Mrs. M.                                     [Matron]
PHILLIPS, Miss Mary                              [Stewardess]
WEIR, Mrs. Margaret                                [Stewardess]

Erroneously Thought of as Transfers
MATTHEWS, Lt. Robert
MATTHEWS, Mrs. Robert (Annie)
PALMER, Mr. Albert
PALMER, Mrs. Albert (Annie Oakes)
PALMER, Master Edgar
PALMER, Miss Olive
PALMER, Master Albert, Jr.

A Brief History of the Cameronia

Launched on 27 May 1911, the Cameronia embarked on its maiden voyage for the Anchor Line on 13 September of that year.  Her assigned route was Glasgow - Mowville - New York.  In 1915, the Cameronia was employed in a joint Anchor-Cunard service on the Glasgow - Liverpool - New York route which she began that February.  That June the ship managed to outpace a submarine west of the Skerries, Anglesey.

Both the Cunard Line official site and Arnold Kludas state that the Cameronia was not requisitioned for troop transport until January 1917.  If that is the case, then what was being done to the Cameronia on 1 May 1915 that led to the deaths of thirty-some people on board the Lusitania?  Contemporary accounts suggested that the Cameronia was on her way to Halifax, Canada to carry supplies and Canadian troops.
 
The Cameronia's first trooping voyages were from Davenport to the Mediterranean.  Her base was subsequently relocated to Marseilles, France.  On 15 April 1917 the Cameronia was torpedoed by the German submarine U-33 enroute from Marseilles to Alexandria, Egypt while carrying 2650 troops and 150 nautical miles from Malta.  The Cameronia sank in 40 minutes, resulting in 210 deaths.  Some of the survivors were picked up by the escorting destroyer, HMS Rifleman. As the U-boat was in the area, the remaining survivors had to be picked up the next morning by a sloop from Malta.

Cameronia Facts and Figures

Gross tonnage	10 963
Length overall	515 feet / 157.0 meters
Beam	62 feet 4 inches / 18.99 meters
Number of funnels	2
Number of masts	2
Machinery	Six-cylindered triple expansion engines geared to twin screws, 10 000 horsepower.
Service speed	16 knots
Builder	D & W Henderson Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland
Yard number	472
Launch date	27 May 1911
Passenger accommodation	As of 1911:   250 first class   450 second class 1000 third class	As of 1915:   362 first class   304 second class   802 third class

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Contributors:
Paul Latimer
Senan Molony
Eric Sauder
Judith Tavares
Hildo Thiel

References:
Bailey, Thomas A. and Paul B. Ryan.  The Lusitania Disaster:  An Episode in Modern Warfare and Diplomacy.  The Free Press, 1975.

Ballard, Robert D. and Spencer Dunmore.  Exploring the Lusitania.  Warner Books, 1995.

Cunard Line Heritage.  Online.  <http://www.cunard.com/aboutcunard/TheFleet.asp?Active=Heritage&Sub=fleet>

Hickey, Des and Gus Smith.  Seven Days to Disaster.  G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.

Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling.  The Last Voyage of the Lusitania.  Madison Books, 1956.

Kludas, Arnold.  Great Passenger Ships of the World, Volume I:  1858-1912.  Patrick Stephens, Ltd., 1972.

Molony, Senan.  Lusitania:  An Irish Tragedy.  Mercier Press, 2004.

Preston, Diana.  Lusitania:  An Epic Tragedy.  Berkeley Books, 2002.

Simpson, Colin.  The Lusitania.  Little, Brown, and Company, 1972.

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