Annie Sharp, 32, was a British national who had been staying in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, but was returning home to the United Kingdom aboard Lusitania. She booked a third class ticket. When the Lusitania was sinking, she entered lifeboat 14, which was lowered successfully but soon filled with water and capsized repeatedly. Annie survived the Lusitania disaster.
Annie had heard either the torpedo impact or the explosion that followed. She said, “I heard the torpedo hit. There was a terrible kind of cracking of wood…”
Annie believed that most of the crew had been trapped below decks during the sinking and could not get to their posts. She entered lifeboat 14 on the port side. The lifeboat reached the water but was not properly plugged. Lifeboat 14 soon started filling with water. She saw a woman bailing out the lifeboat with her handbag.
I didn’t have a handbag and felt helpless. One man wearing a port pie hat wasn’t doing anything so I took his hat off and started to bail with it.
Per Annie’s account, lifeboat 14 capsized six times. Every time, people would climb back on top, right the boat, and get back in. Of the original 60 or so who were in the boat, only 11 were left by the time they were rescued 4 hours later.
Annie also remembered having a baby thrust into her arms by a mother who was struggling in the water. The father suddenly disappeared under the water and the mother did too, soon thereafter.
I looked at the baby after and I was sure it was dead. It’s eyes were all glassy. Another wave threw us over and I went under with the baby. That was the last I saw of it…. I must have been under the water a long time. The men got back on and I heard them talking… I heard one say: ‘Good God, she’s alive!’
The remaining 11 occupants of lifeboat 14 were picked up by a destroyer.
During World War II, Annie was four times in buildings that were hit by bombs. Two of these times were in hospitals. Her husband was killed in action in 1944. After the war she moved in with her daughter Violet in London, England. They moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in 1967.
When John Light started doing dives to the wreck of the Lusitania, Annie was interested in recovering her lost items. She told the reporters of the Ottawa Citizen, “I would claim my trunks and suitcase. They were in a watertight compartment so they still might be all right.”
Contributors
Cliff Barry, UK
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Jim Kalafus, USA
Michael Poirier, USA
References
Kalafus, Jim, Michael Poirier, Cliff Barry and Peter Kelly ( 2013 ) “Lest We Forget : The Lusitania.” Gare Maritime. Online. (ref: #10962, accessed 10th May 2013 08:07:24 PM) <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lest-we-forget-the-lusitania.html>.
“Salvaging of Lusitania brings back memories.” Ottawa Citizen. Thursday, 14 September 1967, page 52.
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