Catherine “Kate” Waters was born in the townland of Mullaghmore, Killarga, County Leitrim, Ireland, in 1890, the daughter of Philip and Mary Waters (née Sheridan). Her family were farmers and Margaret was one of ten children.
A number of her older siblings had emigrated to the United States of America and at some stage Kate had followed them, settling in New York City where her sister, Margaret, was a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital.
In the spring of 1915, Margaret and Kate Waters decided to return to their home in County Leitrim. Their mother was ill and it is likely that they decided to return to their home to care for her.
Consequently, having booked second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania, they joined the liner at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing.
This sailing was delayed until the early afternoon, however so that she could embark passengers, crew and cargo from the recently requisitioned liner Cameronia and the sisters would have had their last glimpse of their adopted country just after that, as the liner made her way out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Six day later, they were both killed, after the Lusitania had been torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool desti
The bodies of neither sister was recovered from the sea and identified afterwards and as a consequence, neither has a known grave. Kate Waters was aged 25 years.
The sisters were survived by their father, and a brother and sister in Ireland, two brothers in California, John and Stephen, a sister, Bridget, residing in Nebraska, and another sister, Elizabeth, residing in New York.
Their mother died at her home on the 13th May 1915, but it is not known if the loss of her daughters hastened her death.
Her brothers and sisters residing in the United States filed a claim with the U.S. State department seeking compensation for the deaths of both sisters, but as they were British subjects at the time of their deaths, the Mixed Claims Commission refused their application. Also, her family filed a claim in the New York City Courts against the Cunard Steam Ship Company Limited, holding the company responsible for their deaths but it is believed that their case was unsuccessful.
Cunard records state that the sisters were travelling from Elcentra, California, which was probably El Centro, but it is likely that this is where their brother, John, was residing at this time and he gave his address as being theirs in the event that any information pertaining to them became available.
1901 Census of Ireland, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2186, New York U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1659 – 1999, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Standard Union, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.