According to his Seaman’s Registration Card, William Egan was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 6th June 1874; however, this cannot be verified.
Nothing is known of his family or early life, but it is likely he became a professional seaman in his early teenage years, when he became an apprentice seaman. He was to spend his entire working life at sea.
By 1915, he was residing with his wife, Alice, at 47. Balm Street, Liverpool. The couple had no children, and no record of their marriage has been found or identified and it is possible that they were not legally married.
He engaged as a Bosun's Mate in the Deck Department of the Lusitania at Liverpool some days before her final voyage. He reported for duty on the morning of the 17th April 1915, before the ‘greyhound of the seas’, left her home port for the very last time to cross the Atlantic to New York.
Three weeks later, he was still serving in the same capacity when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, ten miles off the southern Irish coast and only hours away from Liverpool.
He survived the sinking and having been rescued from the sea was landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually got back to Liverpool. Once there, he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s final voyage and paid the balance of wages owing to him in respect of it. This was in respect of his service from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May 1915; 24 hours after the great liner had foundered.
William Egan gave evidence at the official enquiry conducted into the sinking, chaired by Lord Mersey, in June and July 1915, and a photograph of him, with five of his colleagues, taken on a street close to where the enquiry was being held, appeared in the Western Mail newspaper on the 10th June 1915.
By 1921, William and Alice Egan were residing at 65. West Derby Street, Liverpool, and he was still employed by the Cunard Steam Ship Company. Other than the fact that he was still serving as a merchant seaman until at least June 1940, nothing further is known about him.
1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Liverpool England Crew Lists 1861 – 1919, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Western Mail, PRO BT 351/1/40685, Graham Maddocks, Roy Makinson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 4th April 2023.