| Edward Heighway Able-Bodied Seaman Saved |
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 Image courtesy Jon Belmonte. |
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| Born | Edward John Heighway 22 December 1872 Auckland, New Zealand |
| Died | 23 November 1950 (age 77) Whiston, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom |
| Age on Lusitania | 42 |
| Lifeboat | 15, 1 |
| Rescued by | Wanderer (Peel 12) |
| Citizenship | British (Irish/New Zealander) |
| Residence | Strangford, Co. Down, Ireland, United Kingdom (present-day Northern Ireland, United Kingdom) |
| Other name(s) | “Beighway” in documents |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Skillen (1905 – ?) (Please provide date) |
Edward Heighway (1872 – 1950), 42, was a New Zealander living in the United Kingdom working as a merchant seaman. He worked as an able-bodied seaman for the deck department on the Lusitania‘s last voyage. He survived the Lusitania sinking. He is also recorded as going to the rescue of the SS Volturno in 1913. He died in Whiston, Lancashire, England in 1950.
Biography
Edward John Heighway was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 22 December 1872, the son of John Felton and Dora Eager Heighway. His mother died when he was still an infant, and at some stage he emigrated to the British Isles. Nothing is known of his life until the early 1900s, when he became a professional seaman in the Mercantile Marine.
On 5 July 1905 he married Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Skillen in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland, and it was here, in the village of Strangford, that he raised a family with his wife. The couple had two sons, Sydney Craig and Gerard Cecil Fulton. Between voyages he stayed at 77 Highfield Street in Liverpool, which was probably a lodging house, and also had connections with Sutton Oak, near St Helens in Lancashire.
Earlier heroism
In May 1914 Edward Heighway had received a silver medal for gallantry from King George V, for an incident on 9 October 1913 while he was serving on the Carmania. His vessel had gone to the assistance of the Canadian Northern Steamship Company’s Volturno, which had caught fire in the North Atlantic. Of the 654 people aboard, 30 officers and 103 passengers perished. Edward Heighway was awarded his medal for jumping into the freezing sea, and rescuing a man who had fallen overboard from the burning ship. Ironically, the man he rescued was a German by the name of Walter Trentepohl.
Lusitania
On 12 April 1915 in Liverpool, Heighway engaged on board the Lusitania as an able seaman in the Deck Department. His monthly rate of pay in that rank was £5-10s-0d (£5.50). He reported for duty at 7am on 17 April 1915, before the vessel left Liverpool for the last time. It was not the first time that he had served on the ship.
Having completed her voyage to New York, on the return crossing he survived her sinking three weeks later on the early afternoon of 7 May, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland – only hours away from her home port.
On his return to Liverpool, like all surviving crew members, he was interviewed by an official from the Board of Trade and gave a deposition on oath concerning his experiences of the sinking. Most of these depositions have long since been lost, but that of Able Seaman Heighway has survived in the archives of the Public Record Office in Richmond, Surrey, England. Like the other surviving documents, however, it is not the original and was copied out by hand at a later date. Although it is labelled a ‘facsimile’ copy, the transcriber has mistaken Heighway’s name as Beighway in the copy. The original was given on 13 May 1915 and states:
“The said ship was in the vicinity of The Old Head of Kinsale and deponent was on the saloon deck when he noticed a ripple on the water as from a periscope about 300 yards distant abeam on the starboard side and almost immediately he saw the wake of a torpedo. The torpedo was visible when 10 yards distant from the “Lusitania” and deponent sang out a warning and made for his boat station, No 5 boat, starboard side.
The next instant, there was a violent explosion, the torpedo striking the ship just about amidships starboard side. The vessel took on immediate heavy list to starboard and within 20 seconds, deponent noticed the wake of another torpedo which struck the vessel on the starboard side quarter.
Deponent, on reaching his boat, worked at the fall but before anyone could get into her, someone let the forward fall go, so deponent let the starboard rope run, to try and get the boat level to the water, but this rope choked and the boat losing by her after fall with her forward end trailing in the water. (sic).
Deponent then proceeded aft to No 15 boat, got into her and helped to fill her mainly with women and children. When about 80 people were in her, she was safely lowered, the first officer Mr. Jones working at the forward fall, afterwards sliding down the fall to the boat.”
Able Seaman Heighway’s deposition contains some inconsistencies with other accounts. Even though it was dictated soon after the sinking, Heighway’s deposition is one of many that shows how stressful conditions can alter the perceptions of the participants involved in a disaster.
Kapitänleutnant Schwieger in command of the U-20 only claimed to have fired one torpedo, even though Heighway and others claimed to have seen the wake of two. Lifeboat number 5 was destroyed by water and debris dropping onto it after the torpedo strike, and from his account, it is more likely that the able seaman is describing the fate of a collapsible raft put in its place, possibly the same collapsible that Mabel Learoyd was in that tipped over. He is correct, however when he mentions number 15 boat having about 80 persons in it and being under the command of First Officer Arthur Jones. His deposition continues: –
“At this moment, the Lusitania took a tremendous dive, practically standing on her head and sank, killing hundreds of people. This was about 20 minutes after being torpedoed.
Deponent’s boat then pulled towards an empty boat and under orders from first officer, deponent and about 20 others transferred to it. They then pulled around and picked about 50 people out of the water, afterwards making for land, being eventually taken aboard the Wanderer of Peel.”
The empty boat described by Heighway was probably lifeboat number 1, which was not entirely empty, but had been swamped when the ship sank, throwing out most of its passengers. The Wanderer of Peel, also known as the Peel 12, was a Manx fishing smack which just happened to be fishing in the area when she saw the liner go down. She then rescued many passengers and crew from the sea.
Able Seaman Heighway also gave evidence at the official enquiry conducted into the disaster, chaired by Lord Mersey in June and July 1915 at Caxton Hall in London and his account of two torpedoes having been fired must have suited the official findings of the enquiry. He was photographed outside the building with five other crew member survivors and this photograph was circulated widely in the press at the time, and was also published in Part 10 of the post-war publication I Was There.
In a follow-up to this, in Part 12, a former army sergeant named Lahiff who had served in the 2nd Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during the conflict, who came from Sutton Oak, near St Helens, wrote a letter to the editor, identifying Able Seaman Heighway (although Lahiff’s letter spelled his name Highway), in the photograph and stating that he knew him personally and saw him regularly in Sutton Oak at the end of each voyage he made. It would therefore appear that Edward Heighway continued to serve as a merchant seaman after the Lusitania‘s sinking.
Some time after his return to Liverpool, Edward Heighway was officially discharged from his service on the Lusitania and paid the balance of wages owed to him in respect of it, which amounted to £4-18s-8d (£4.93). Like all crew members, this service was counted from 17 April to 8 May; 24 hours after the liner had gone down.
Fellow able seaman Frederick Hugh O’Neill who also survived the sinking of the Lusitania also lived at 77 Highfield Street.
Later life
Edward Heighway continued to serve in the mercantile marine for many years, mostly as a master-at-arms. He died at Whiston General Hospital, St Helen’s, Lancashire on 23 November 1950, aged 77 years. Administration of his estate was granted to his son, Detective Sergeant Sydney Craig Heighway, at London on 10 February 1951 and his effects amounted to £1272-2s-3d.
Links of interest
Edward John Heighway at the Merseyside Maritime Museum
Contributors
John Belmonte – (4belmonte at velocitynet dot com dot au)
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Roy Makinson
Senan Molony, Ireland
Ellie Moffat, UK
References
Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy. Mercier Press, 2004, page 83-84.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths
1911 Census of Ireland
Cunard Records
I Was There
“Seaman’s Heroic Rescue Work.” Irish Independent, 12 May 1915, page 6.
PRO ADM 137/1058
PRO BT 100/345
Probate Records
Edward John Heighway was my grandfather. He married an Irish girl and his son, my father,was born and raised in Strangford, Northern Ireland. Edward John’s act of heroism in the Volturno incident was recorded in the book “The Burning of the Volturno”.
My grandparents had an old typewritten list of Edwards awards. I’m curious to find out what their link was to him. I would appreciate any help in the matter.
Edward John Heighway was my great uncle. My grandfather, Ernest Walter, and Edward were brothers.
I visited NZ some years ago and caught up with some cousins on the McRae side (Edward John’s mothers side) in Auckland, Keri Keri and Wellsford.
Hello. I came across some information that one of the lifeboats from the Titanic ‘collapsible A’ had some survivors on it. After the survivors were rescued the lifeboat was left in the ocean. It was picked up by the Oceanic. Edward visited it when it was brought into New York. Because his brother was a shipwright at Harland and Wolff he cut off a piece of cork and sent it wrapped to his niece. I wondered if you were aware of this story. Regards, Marie.
Through much investigation and contacts, i have medals attributed to Edward and slowly rebuilding his group of awards.
It seem that his medals have been split and a few found there way on to the collectors market
Edward John Heighway is my great uncle. His wife Elizabeth and my grandmother Caroline were sisters. There was a story in the family that some relation was on the Luistania but I never knew who – ironically his younger son, Gerald Cecil Felton was drowned at Portstewart when he was 28 in 1937. I only discovered this on investigating the family tree and have visited his grave in Belfast. I also discovered that Elizabeth died in 1947 and is buried in the Skillen family plot in Ballyculter near Strangford. I have been unable to find this plot.
So Caroline was a Strangford Skillen. Elizabeth was my grandmother. She is buried in a small Church of Ireland parish graveyard in Saul, County Down, close to Downpatrick on a little back road to Strangford. I would go there occasionally with my father, Sydney Heighway, when I was a little boy to tend the grave. It was a small but very old and very pretty church with a stone walled yard and large yew trees. I loved going there.
I have no direct cousins. As you note, my father’s only brother died when he was so young. My father said Gerald was a poor swimmer, unlike him. My dad would compete in the annual swims across the mouth of the Lough from Strangford to Portaferry, and you probably know what the tidal currents are like there! Gerald was married but had no children. My mother’s only sister died in her thirties from cancer. Again no family. But I had a great many great uncles and great aunts, especially on my mother’s side, and their families gave us many second cousins. We had lots of big family get-togethers, particularly at Christmas and of course at weddings and funerals.
Caroline and Elizabeth’s sister Annie (Granny Johnston) lived for a time in one of the houses beside the farmyard at Castle Ward I remember visiting her there with my parents. Her youngest daughter, Netta (Bradshaw) died in December 2013 aged 100 – she is buried with her husband, Matt, and her parents (Annie & George) at Ballyculter – my mum and I attended her funeral. Netta lived in the gate lodge of Myra Castle (the Skillen home) and I have happy memories of visiting her there.