Iwan Taracsewics was born within the Imperial Russian Empire in 1873. Some time, probably before the Great War, he had left there and having crossed the Atlantic Ocean he settled in Palmerston, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America where he found employment, probably as a labourer.
In the spring of 1915, however, he decided to return home, possibly being mindful of his patriotic duty in light of the poor showing of the Imperial Russian forces against those of the Central Powers on the eastern front.
Consequently, he booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool for the first part of his journey home. Having left Palmerston some time in April, he boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. This was then delayed until the early afternoon of that day as she had to load cargo and embark passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
Six days later, in the early afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20 and sank in just 18 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, the she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port.
Altogether there were 68 Russian nationals who were passengers on the Lusitania. Of these, 39 were killed and 29 survived the sinking. Iwan Taracsewics was one of the lucky ones who survived the sinking and after having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown. Some Russian survivors later complained to The Russian Ambassador in Liverpool about their poor treatment at the hands of the British Authorities at Queenstown and it is to be hoped that Taracsewics was not one of these.
It is not known if he ever made it back to his homeland or if he did, if he survived the war and the subsequent major revolutions in Russia. He was 42 years of age at the time of the sinking.
Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.