Elie Gililen was born in Persia (now called Iran), in 1879. Some time before the Great War, he had left the Persian Gulf and travelled to the United States of America. He then settled in Yonkers, New York State, where he presumably found employment.
By the spring of 1915, rumours began to circulate in America that the Turks, who controlled Persia at that time, had been committing atrocities against many innocent civilians. As a result, quite a few Persian nationals including nine from Chicago, Illinois, decided to return home to investigate the truth behind the stories. Elie Gililen similarly decided to return and consequently booked third cabin passage on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to England, on the first part of his journey to Persia.
He then boarded the vessel at her berth at Pier 54 in New York port on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. This was then delayed until the early afternoon, however, as the liner had to embark passengers, cargo and some crew, from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for war work by the British Admiralty at the end of April.
The Lusitania eventually left her berth at 12.27 p.m. and slipped out into the North River and her date with destiny. Just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20 within sight of the coast of southern Ireland. At that time, she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her Liverpool home port and destination.
Altogether, there were fifteen Persian nationals on board at the time the
Lusitania was sunk and of these, nine perished as a result of this action. Elie Gililen was one of the fortunate six who survived and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he probably continued his journey to the British mainland. It is not known, however, if he ever made it back to his native land after this or survived thereafter, to eventually return to America!
He was aged 36 years at the time of the sinking.
Cunard Records, Graham Maddocks.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.