Gretha (Greta) Anna Jakobine Lorensen, or Reuter-Lorenzen, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 18th January 1894, the daughter of Emanuel Heinrich Peter and Theckla Augusta Lorensen (née Malmquist). Her father was described as a manager, and was born in Denmark, while her mother had been born in Sweden.
She was engaged as nurse to the children of Americans, Surgeon-Major Frederic and Amy Pearl at the seaport of Skagen, in August 1914, by the family’s other nurse, Alice Lines. At that time, there were three children, Stuart, born in 1910, Susan, born in 1912, and Amy, born in 1914.
The Pearls were a wealthy family and spent a lot of 1914 travelling in Europe, but because Mrs. Pearl was already pregnant with their fourth child and wanted it to be born in America, they decided to return to their home at 375, West End Avenue, New York, N.Y. and naturally, their new nurse, Greta, went with them. Their fourth child, another girl, named Audrey, was born there in February 1915.
However, once Mrs. Pearl had got over the birth, the couple decided to take the family back to Europe as they both wanted to get involved in medical work, in support of the Allied war effort.
As a consequence, they booked saloon passage for all the family, including the two nurses, on board the Lusitania and all joined her in time for what became her final sailing out of New York, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915. Her sailing had been scheduled for 10.00 a.m., but had to be delayed whilst she took on board passengers, some of the crew and the cargo from the Anchor Lines vessel Cameronia, which had been taken by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Once on board, Frederic Pearl and his wife occupied suite E51, Greta Lorenson took Stuart and Audrey into room E67, which had three beds, whilst Alice Lines took Amy and Susan into room E59 with her. The ticket for the whole family group was numbered 46071.
Once the ship had left New York the pattern for the voyage emerged. Greta Lorenson and Alice Lines generally ate with the children during the first part of the day in the first class dining room and then Miss Lorenson took them to afternoon tea in the nursery and looked after Audrey Pearl during dinner. Sometimes, a stewardess would feed Audrey and Greta Lorenson would join Alice Lines with the Pearls for dinner.
On the afternoon of 7th May 1915, the two nurses had taken the three older Pearl children to lunch in the first class nursery, leaving Audrey sleeping in room E59. Having finished helping to feed them, Alice Lines left to feed Audrey and took Stuart with her, and Greta Lorenson took the other two little girls back to their cabin.
Shortly afterwards, a torpedo struck the vessel, fired by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger commanding the German submarine U-20, and the liner almost immediately lurched to starboard. Greta Lorenson managed to grab the two children and get them out onto the deck. According to Hickey and Smith in their book Seven Days to Disaster, at the same time, Alice Lines with the other two Pearl children, was also making for the deck and: -
They met Greta coming down with baby Susan. Alice suddenly panicked. Where was her beloved Amy? “What have you done with my baby?” she cried.
Greta was sobbing with fright. “A stewardess took her to a lifeboat. Oh, what are we to do?” “Don’t bother with anybody else,” Alice said emphatically, “Just watch the children.”
According to Audrey Pearl, then Audrey Lawson Johnson, in an interview with the author in 1999: -
Greta Lorenson and Susan actually got into a lifeboat but it capsized and they were thrown out and they must have been drowned for they were never seen again.
Alice Lines, with Stuart and Audrey Pearl survived the sinking and having got into a lifeboat, were rescued and landed at Queenstown. Major and Mrs. Pearl also survived, but despite rigorous searches of the mortuaries by Frederic Pearl and Alice Lines afterwards, no trace of the two missing Pearl children or Greta Lorenson was ever found.
One account of the sinking of the Lusitania states that Nurse Lorenson had a relative who was killed as a crew member on board the White Star liner R.M.S. Titanic when she sank on her maiden voyage to New York, after hitting an iceberg on 12th April 1912.
There is no person named Lorenson in either the list of crew members or passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, however.
The official list of passenger victims published by Cunard in March 1916 lists Greta Lorensen as Greta Lorenson, but this is erroneous.
Denmark Church Records 1812 – 1918, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Seven Days to Disaster, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/47, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.