Arthur Henry Adams, age 46, was traveling aboard Lusitania with his son, William. They lived in Paris, France, but had moved to London so William could attend Eton. Arthur had taken his son to New York for William to think over his decision to join the British Army. William’s cabin on the Lusitania was D-37. Arthur was in D-45. They shared ticket 46102. When the ship was sinking, they both entered lifeboat 17, which upset. William survived the Lusitania sinking. Arthur did not. In Hickey and Smith, Adams is erroneously credited as being the president of the United States Rubber Company and a descendant of the American Revolutionary Samuel Adams. Both attributes have been refuted by the Adams family.
Arthur was married to Gertrude Adams, who at the time of his death was 49 years of age. Their son William was enrolled at Trinity College in at the University of Cambridge in England. When war broke out, William wanted to join the British Army, thus Arthur took his son back to the United States to reconsider this decision.
At the time of the torpedo impact, William was in the lounge. Arthur was in his cabin. William then ran into the corridor where he believed he saw a second torpedo. William and Arthur met in the corridor and they went to the portside and tried to help Staff Captain Anderson with the lifeboats.
Arthur decided that they should have lifebelts and went back down the main staircase to D deck. They couldn’t leave the stairs as the water was within four feet of the newel post and the water was pouring in from the portholes. They ran up to the starboard side and climbed into lifeboat #17, which was launched disastrously, pitching everyone inside the boat into the water. They contemplated getting back on the ship but decided to jump. They separated in the water.
Arthur did not survive the Lusitania disaster. Afterwards, William joined the army.
Related pages
Arthur and William Adams at the Mixed Claims Commission
Contributors
Nicolas Adams (great-grandson of Arthur Adams)
Michael Poirier
References
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981.
Arthur was not president of the United States rubber co. he just had a friend that worked there. We are not related to Samuel Adams and we believe according to the Adams family records in Boston Mass that Samuel died without children. William was my grandfather and Arthur was my great-grandfather, and they were from Paris and London first Paris then they moved to London where William attended Eton collage and Arthur opened a car business called the Adams Car Company in 1906.
Hi Nicolas,
Thank you for pointing out these errors. They have been corrected.
Arthur Henry Adams and his car-making factory in Elstow Road, Bedford, England, features in ‘Bedford’s Motoring Heritage’ (The History Press, Stroud, England, revised edition, 2010) by Richard Wildman and Alan Crawley, pp.18-28. He appears in a photograph of the workforce, believed to have been taken in 1907, on p.24 (top).
Our book refutes the claim that Adams drowned on the Titanic in 1912, but we did not know about his death on the Lusitania.
I am researching the Adams car which is at The Higgins in Bedford and would like Nicolas Adams to contact me.
colin.watt@mooncarrot.org.uk