Charles Thomas Knight (1881 – 1915), 34, was a British subject serving as an able-bodied seaman for the deck department of the Lusitania on the ship’s final voyage. Knight survived the Lusitania sinking when the ship was torpedoed on 7 May 1915, but he died six months later in an accident in Southampton, England.
This biography was made possible by Peter Kelly and a collaboration with the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Biography
Charles Thomas Knight was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England in 1881. In 1915 he lived at 37 Romsey Road, Southampton, Hampshire.
He was a professional seaman in the Mercantile Marine and on 12th April 1915, he engaged at Liverpool, on board the Lusitania, as an able seaman in the Deck Department, at a monthly rate of pay of £5-15s-0d., (£5.75p.). The sum of £1-10-0d., (£1.50p.), was advanced to him at the time, which indicated that he was a trusted crew member and had sailed on the liner before.
Having joined her at Pier Head on the morning of 17 April, in time for what became her last ever voyage out of the River Mersey, he completed her crossing to New York and was similarly engaged when she began her return to Liverpool on 1 May.
When Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, off the southern coast of Ireland six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, almost half of the Deck Department seaman perished as a result. Able Seaman Knight was amongst those who managed to survive, however. At that time, the ship was only hours away from her home port.
Having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown from where he eventually managed to get to Liverpool.
There, on 10 May 1915, he was officially discharged from the Lusitania and paid the balance of wages owed to him in respect of his service. This amounted to £5-14s-6d., (£5.72½p.), and was reckoned from the day the return voyage began at Liverpool, until 24 after the liner had gone down!
Despite surviving the sinking of the Lusitania; however, he only had a further six months to live as he was killed as the result of a tragic accident on the railway line at Southampton Docks, Hampshire, on 8 November 1918, whilst serving as Quartermaster on the S.S. Matheran. He was aged 34 years.
Links of interest
Charles Thomas Knight at the Merseyside Maritime Museum
Contributors
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Ellie Moffat, UK
References
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths
1881 Census of England and Wales
1891 Census of England and Wales
1901 Census of England and Wales
Cunard Records
PRO BT 100/345
Southern Daily Echo
PRO BT 334.
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