Ellen “Elli” Marie Waaranen was born in Uurais (Uurainen), Finland, probably between 1890 and 1893. Nothing is known about her early life except that her father’s name was David Waaranen.
In March 1909, she left her home and travelled to Hull, Yorkshire, England, from where she crossed England by rail to the port city of Liverpool. On the 17th April she boarded the White Star Lines, Cymric, in Liverpool and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America.
She was employed as a domestic servant in the home of James Logan and his family in the city of Worcester, which is about 40 miles west of Boston. James Logan was the mayor of Worcester from 1908 to 1911.
In the spring of 1915, however, she decided to return home to her native land and for the first part of her journey, she booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool on the morning of May Day.
Not much more is really known about her, but she would have arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on that morning in time for the liner’s 10 o’clock departure and then would have had to have waited until just after mid-day before the liner actually left the port. This delay was caused because the Lusitania had to load cargo and embark passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for use as a troop ship by the British Admiralty at the end of April.
Six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. She then sank within 20 minutes, killing two thirds of all her passengers and crew. One of the many third class passengers killed was Elli Waaranen. According to the official passenger manifest, she was aged 22 years at the time, but she might have been a few years older than that.
As her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave.
There were five other Finnish passengers on board the last voyage of the Lusitania, Mr. Ajunnar Nikander, a deported passenger, and he too, lost his life as a result of the torpedoing of the vessel, and Mrs. Aino Antila and her two sons, who survived. There was also one other Finn on board, however, crew member Fireman A.A. Sternberg, who was also killed in the disaster.
1910 U.S. Federal Census, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Boston Globe, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/220, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.