| Angela Pappadopoulos Saloon Passenger Saved |
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 Courtesy of the Baffa Trasci Amalfitani di Crucoli Family |
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| Born | Angela Baffa Trasci Amalfitani di Crucoli 1883 Italy |
| Died | 1 May 1936 (age 53) Paris, France |
| Age on Lusitania | 32 |
| Ticket number | 14673 |
| Cabin number | B 78 |
| Lifeboat | 17 |
| Rescued by | Juno |
| Traveling with | – Michael Pappadopoulos – Leonidas Bistis |
| Citizenship | Greek |
| Residence | Athens, Greece |
| Spouse(s) | – Michael Pappadopoulos (? – 1915), his death – Alexandre, Count Bakeev (? – ?) (Please provide dates) |
Angela Pappadopoulos (1883 – 1936), 32, was a Greek citizen from Athens, Greece. She was traveling with her husband Michael and their friend Leonidas Bistis aboard Lusitania after visiting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, to return to Athens. Michael and Leonidas were lost in the sinking. Angela survived.
Biography
The Honorable Angela Baffa Trasci Amalfitani di Crucoli was born in 1883, the daughter of Italian aristocrat Vincenzo Baffa Trasci Amalfitani. Angela was married to a Greek carpet magnate named Michael “Michele” Pappadopoulos. Her life involved her three children, travelling with her husband for business and pleasure, and mingling with her equals in high society. Business brought them to New York and Canada aboard the Lusitania and having had a westbound successful crossing to America; they booked the Lusitania again, set to sail on 1 May 1915. Angela and Michael stayed in cabin B 78 for their return trip aboard Lusitania, their ticket number being 14673.
Prior to researchers’ efforts, Angela was just a name on the passenger list with not much known about her. There are fleeting references in accounts by other people, but she was mostly an enigma. Contact between the authors and Angela’s family provided much new information, including her personal accounts of her survival not seen before outside the family. Many interesting details were revealed including her dancing with Alfred Vanderbilt, the millionaire; dining at Captain Turner’s table; playing cards with Marguerite, Lady Allan, of the Allan Line, and Sir Hugh Lane. In Angela’s words:
That evening I insisted that Sir Lane showed us some paintings he was carrying to Europe and so we went into the cabin (portside, D-26) where I had the chance to see those works of art for the last time before they were lost forever in the shipwreck.
Her cabin was next to that of Josephine and Iris Burnside, who she became friends with when she visited Canada. Angela’s husband had a premonition the evening before the disaster and sat in lifeboat 17 until he was coaxed out. As such, Michael is most likely the Greek man that Robert Timmis saw on the night of Thursday, 6 May, strap on a lifejacket, climb into a lifeboat, and attempt to sleep there. The scene was described by Timmis as the funniest thing he ever saw.
Their movements after the torpedoing brought them back to lifeboat 17 which capsized in lowering. “I can still feel his hand slipping from mine,” she wrote in a despondent letter to her father. In the water, Bistis tried to help Pappadopoulos to get into the lifeboat. They held on for a while and then disappeared.
Angela swam in a sweater and trousers lent to her by a sailor a long way toward shore before being picked up by a damaged collapsible boat. This collapsible boat held 34 survivors, including Archie Donald, George Bilbrough, Olive North, and Thirza Winter. They were picked up by Juno, which took the survivors to Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.
Upon reaching Queenstown, Ireland she traveled to London, England, arrived there on 9 May, and was taken in by a host family. Bistis’ brother, who was looking for Leonidas, and some of his friends offered to take care of her. Angela’s post-disaster nervous condition got worse in the following days, and she would not eat and was subject to hysterical attacks. Angela’s host could not stand her anymore and sent her to a nursing home. There she was able to calm down by 15 May, but she was still weak from her ordeal.
Michael’s body was recovered on Friday, 14 May, #210. Mr. Baker, upon hearing of the body’s recovery, went to see Angela to inquire about her wishes for Michael. Angela then continued on her way to Athens via Paris, France.
Angela was a well-photographed survivor, with a number of different photos of her taken in Queenstown running in newspapers across the United Kingdom and United States.
Following the death of her husband in the disaster, she went on to lose her three children in the Spanish Flu epidemic. She was introduced to Alexandre the Count Bakeev, a Russian exile living in France and married him. She continued her travels and interests, but never forgot the Lusitania disaster and typed up her account. This account has been published first in Into the Danger Zone: Sea Crossings of the First World War
Angela died in Paris, France on 1 May 1936. Her final wish was to be buried with the uniform of the sailor that helped rescue her.
Links of Interest
Lest We Forget: Part 1 – Encyclopedia Titanica
Contributors
The Baffa Trasci Amalfitani di Crucoli Family, Italy
Jim Kalafus, USA
Michael Poirier, USA
Judith Tavares
References
Hoehling, A.A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Kalafus, Jim and Michael Poirier (2005). Lest We Forget: Part 1. ET Research. <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lusitania-lest-we-forget.html>
My grandfather, John Hulme, was one of the rescuers in his trawler the Brock. Among the passengers he picked up from the water was a naked Greek lady, to whom he offered his coat.
At first I wondered if my mother got the nationality wrong as this lady was lent sweater and pants by a sailor (so wouldn’t have been naked) before being rescued by Juno, although I gather sometimes passengers were transferred. However, I can confirm that a family video diary recorded years ago states the passenger he lent his uniform to was Greek and Angela Pappadopoulos seems to be have been the only Greek lady on the Lusitania passenger list. It seems she was transferred from the Brock to the Juno.
John Hulme fished out from the water an entertainment programme of the Lusitania, dated the night before the sinking. Poignantly, it refers to all those sailors drowned at sea and their orphans in an advertisement on the back. Just one day from one of the worst maritime disasters in history…
The entertainment programme is not in my possession, but I have uploaded a scanned copy on my Facebook page, May 31 2015. https://www.facebook.com/robin.calvert