Mr. Henry Burgess, 37, of Shipley, Yorkshire, England, on the outskirts of Bradford, was a passenger on the Lusitania‘s last voyage. He was originally booked on board the Cameronia that was requisitioned by the British Admiralty, so the Cameronia‘s passengers were all transferred to the Lusitania. Burgess’ ticket for Lusitania was 013343. Burgess survived the Lusitania disaster.
During the sinking, Burgess encountered wireless operators Robert Leith and David McCormick saw McCormick take photographs. He described his experiences in his local newspaper, The Shipley Times and Observer:
As for myself, I went to the Marconi house and asked if a message had been got away. The operator said “Yes, but you had better get hold of this, old man, (throwing me an office chair), as you may want it.” I did not take the chair but I went over to the starboard side and saw that now the water was nearly up to the level of the boat deck. ….. The Marconi man came out of his office at that time and began to take photographs, which struck me as a cool proceeding. I don’t know whether he saved himself and his photographs.
Perhaps the photographs never came out, because none ever came to light afterwards.
Contributors
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Judith Tavares
Hildo Thiel, The Netherlands
References
The Shipley Times and Observer
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