Karatioum Seisian was believed to have been born in Persia, (now called Iran), in 1880. At some stage, probably before the Great War, he had left his native home and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, to settle in Troy, New York, in the United States of America where he presumably found work.
In the spring of 1915, however, rumours began to circulate amongst the Persian communities in America that the Turkish rulers back in Europe had massacred many of their relatives and a few of them, particularly those from the Chicago, Illinois, community, decided to return home to investigate. It is likely that Karatioum Seisian decided to return home for the same purpose and may have been in touch with his fellow nationals from Chicago. Accordingly, he booked third cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to England, on the first part of his journey.
He boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure, but then had to wait until the early afternoon of that day before the liner actually sailed. This was because she had to load cargo and embark passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days later, in the early afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20 and sank within 20 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
There were fifteen Persian nationals on board the Lusitania when she went down, most of them from Chicago and of these, nine were killed and six survived the sinking. Karatioum Seisian was unfortunately one of those killed! He was aged 35 years.
There was another Persian national on board the Lusitania who lived in Troy - fellow third class passenger Levon Seferien who survived. It is likely that Levon Seferien and Karatioum Seisian knew each other and they may have been travelling together.
Cunard Records, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.