Robert Chisholm, 33, was a second steward aboard the last voyage of the Lusitania. He survived the sinking. His grandfather, Captain Daniel Chisholm, was a ships salvager who dived searching for ship wrecks. A memorial in Rake Lane Cemetery in Wallasey, Merseyside, England, commemorates the elder Chisholm’s achievements.
Robert had seen the torpedo approach the ship and alerted Chief Steward Jones of it before impact. When the ship was sinking, he saw Alfred Vanderbilt on B deck “vainly attempting to rescue a hysterical woman.” At the time, Chisholm had only been running by, shouting, “Hurry Mr. Vanderbilt, or it will be too late!”
Chisholm may have been the same man in the water with Norman Ratcliff, telling Ratcliff about how Vanderbilt gave his lifebelt to save a woman and sacrifice his own life.
Chisholm stayed in the Queenstown area until early June as part of Captain Manley’s expedition to find and recover any remaining bodies of Lusitania victims. Chisholm also responded to inquiries from the family of Richard Preston Prichard on whether Prichard’s body had been recovered. Chisholm responded that he had not seen Prichard’s body.
Later, Chisholm became a steward on the Ophir , a ship that was involved in looking for the wreck of the Lusitania.
Years later, in the 1930s, Chisholm may have been reunited with the woman he saw Vanderbilt rescue. In the early days of the salvage operation of the Lusitania wreck, he met second-cabin passenger Alice Middleton. He mentioned the story of Vanderbilt giving away his lifebelt and showed her a picture of Vanderbilt. Alice did not know who had given her the lifebelt that saved her life until she saw the picture and was convinced it was him.
Related pages
The Prichard Letters: Letter from Robert Chisholm, dated 2 June 1915
The Prichard Letters: Letter from Robert Chisholm, dated 7 June 1915
Contributors:
Alison Lowe (descendant of Robert Chisholm)
Nanette McDougall LaChance (granddaughter of Alice Middleton), USA
Michael Poirier, USA
Judith Tavares
References:
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956. pg. 149.
Minutes of Evidence as Given at the Mersey Inquiry.
You must log in to post a comment.