C.J. (forenames not known) Carlson was born in Sweden in 1858.
Some time probably before the outbreak of the Great War, he had gone to the United States of America and settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he found employment as a labourer.
In April 1915, however; he decided to return to Sweden and as a result he booked third class passage aboard the scheduled May sailing of the
Lusitania, from New York to Liverpool, on the first stage of his journey.
He joined the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York in time for her 10.00 a.m. departure, but had to wait until the early afternoon before she sailed, as she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from Anchor Liner the S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war work as a troop ship at the end of April.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the southern coast of Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger - only about fourteen hours sailing time from her Liverpool destination.
Mr. Carlson was killed as a result of this action - he was aged 57 years at the time -and as his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave.
Cunard Records, 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.