Michail Griwaczewski was born in Lawrinowicze, in what was then Imperial Russia, but is now in Belarus, in 1887. He was married, his wife’s name being Stefanida.
In 1913, he had left his home with the intention of travelling to friends in New York City in the United States of America. Having reached England, he boarded the St. Paul in Southampton on the 13th July, and safely arrived in New York City one week later, and presumably met with his friends and found work as a labourer in New York City.
By early 1915, he decided to return home, possibly being mindful of his patriotic duty in light of the dire military situation in which the Imperial Russian forces found themselves in, against those of the Central Powers, on the eastern front.
As a result, 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. 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. 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 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 off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20 and sank in just 18 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, 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. Unfortunately, Michail Griwaczewski was one of those killed as a result of the action and as his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 28 years at the time of his death.
An amended list of passengers, published in February 1917, and held in the archive of The Public Record Office at Richmond, Surrey, indicated his name might have been spelt Griwacjewski.
New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.