Mr. Robert Anderson Mackenzie

Robert Mackenzie, 40, was a fish and poultry merchant from Dublin, Ireland, traveling third class aboard Lusitania. He was in his cabin when the ship was torpedoed. He saw many lifeboats swamp and helped load some lifeboats. The lifeboat he escaped in matches the description of lifeboat 15. Mackenzie survived the Lusitania sinking but was killed the following year in the Easter Rising.

A business trip

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Robert Anderson Mackenzie lived at 3 Cavendish Row, Dublin. He was a married man and a fish and poultry merchant who had spent February through May of 1915 traveling for business in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He had sailed arrived in New York aboard Lusitania on 20 February and was planning to return on the same ship three months later.

During his time in North America, Mackenzie had visited New Orleans, Louisiana; Meridian, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Niagara Falls, New York; Toronto, Ontario; Buffalo, New York; and Syracuse, New York; before heading back to New York City.

The Lusitania disaster

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Mackenzie’s story in the 10 May 1915 Irish Times–that erroneously reported him to be a second cabin passenger–related that Robert had finished lunch and was in his room when the Lusitania was torpedoed. He first heard a “dull thud” followed by “an explosion in the hold” but very little noise and only a slight shock where he was standing. At once, he made his way to the saloon cabin deck which were practically deserted except for a few stewards. He recalled that there was no panic, and the stewards seemed rather confident that the ship was going to reach shore. He saw many boats launched from what the Irish Times reports as the “port side” that were quickly swamped, but being that almost none of the port side boats could be launched, perhaps the report is mistaken and meant the starboard side.

Mackenzie and other passengers helped load and launch some of the lifeboats, and he saw one get swamped by a funnel as the ship was heeling over, which may have been lifeboat 7 or the collapsible that Mabel Learoyd was in. He then jumped six feet into “the last boat,” which before it got clear became tangled in the wireless lines. Fortunately, the lifeboat was able to get free of the lines before the sinking ship dragged them down with her, and the lifeboat floated between two funnels. From this description, it sounds like Mackenzie escaped in lifeboat 15, which was the last lifeboat successfully launched.

His lifeboat rescued some women and children clinging to the bottoms of two overturned collapsible boats. It was also while in this boat that Mackenzie learned from radio operator Robert Leith that the torpedo explosion had put the main and emergency apparatuses out of order. They then rowed to a fishing boat (Wanderer/Peel 11) that couldn’t move because of the lack of wind, and was thus unable to sail to the scene to render assistance. The survivors were put aboard the fishing smack before the crew, and Elizabeth Duckworth, rowed back to the site of the sinking to pick up more survivors.

Mackenzie was taken off the Wanderer and onto a tugboat (Flying Fish?) around 7 that evening and brought to Queenstown.

Easter Rising

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Robert Mackenzie was a provision merchant when he was killed in the Easter Rising of 1916. He refused rebels the use of his premises and provisions and was shot dead.

Contributors:
Senan Molony, Ireland

References:
“Mackenzie, Robert A.” Passenger Record, Liberty Ellis Foundation. <http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAwMzQwMTMwMjA4Ijs=/czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==> Accessed 15 March 2015 23:20 p.m.

Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy. Mercier Press, 2004. pages 47-48.