Patrick Joseph Hanley was born in Castletroy, County Limerick, Ireland, on the 16th April 1988, the son of Michael and Ellen Hanley (née Houlihan). His home was at Mount Shannon, Lisnagry, County Limerick, where his father worked as a labourer and gardener. He was one of twelve children, nine of whom were still alive in 1911.
In January 1909, he boarded the Teutonic at Queenstown, and emigrated to the United States of America. His destination was the home of his eldest sister, Mary, who was married to a man named Charles White, and resided at 2910. Classon Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City. He boarded with his brother-in-law and sister, and quickly found work in a grocery store.
He returned to Ireland for a holiday in the summer of 1912, and then in 1915, he decided to return again for a holiday. As a result, he booked third class passage from New York to Liverpool on the May sailing of the
Lusitania and joined the vessel at Pier 54 on the morning of 1st May 1915, before she slipped out into the North River for the very last time, on her final voyage across the Atlantic.
Her original scheduled 10 00a.m. departure was postponed until 12.27 p.m., because she had to embark passengers crew and cargo from the liner
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship at the end of the previous month. Then, six days later, the liner was torpedoed and sunk within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20, only about 250 miles away from her destination.
Patrick Hanley was amongst those lucky enough to be saved and after been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown, from where he was eventually able to get back to his family home at Mount Shannon, on the outskirts of Limerick City.
His local newspaper, the Limerick Leader, described his experiences in their 10th May edition: -
LIMERICK MAN SAVED
THRILLING EXPERIENCES
Patrick Hanly (sic), son of Mr. Michael Hanly, Mountshannon, Lisnagry, Limerick, was a traveller on the ill-fated Cunarder, but fortunately he was rescued. In an interview with a Limerick Leader representative, he stated that at about 2.10p.m., when in sight of land, a German submarine appeared some 700 or 800 yards away and launched a torpedo with deadly accuracy into the ship. He immediately rushed, with a number of other men, into his cabin and put on his lifebelt (which article he now treasures in his home) and some minutes later, in company with his companions, jumped from the port side into the water some fifty feet below.
He was unable to swim, but the life preserver kept him afloat, and he lay on his back and used his hands to get clear of the giant leviathan and the flying wreckage which was caused by the discharge of a second torpedo into the ship’s side.
Patrick Hanley was another of the survivors who was wrong when he claimed that a second torpedo had struck the ship. He, along with many others, assumed that the second explosion was caused by a torpedo. The article continues: -
The scene was, he said, pitiable. Women and children were screaming and floundering in the water, while others had been killed by the fall of the decks, and were floating on the surface of the calm sea. He drifted about for over half an hour when he came up with an overturned boat, which he mounted and clung onto. He assisted some women and men on board the craft, and there they remained for over two hours before they were picked up by a cutter from a torpedo boat.
On arrival in Queenstown they were taken in charge by the company’s officials and placed in the Rob Roy Hotel, where all the necessary comforts were given them after their trying experience. Mr. Hanly appears nothing the worse for his cruel experience at the hands of the ruthless German savages, but he stated that he cannot sleep very well, the nerve-wracking experience he has undergone making him start from his slumbers every few minutes. He has been the recipient of numerous congratulations from his friends and neighbours, who all speak with great indignation of the murder of innocent non-combatants.
After he arrived home, he applied for financial help from The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and other local dignitaries, immediately after the sinking. This fund was intended to help survivors and relatives of victims of the sinking who had suffered financial distress through having lost all their belongings after the ship was sunk. He was initially given the sum of £7-0s-0d but was promised a further £5-0s-0d. He was never given this final sum, which was returned to the Lusitania Relief Fund by Cunard.
Patrick Hanley wrote to the Cunard Steamship Company complaining that he was badly treated all round, and that he was refused free passage on the
Orduña. He also stated that he would rather work his passage back to New York rather than risk his life on another British liner.
On 4th September 1915, he accepted the offer of a free passage back to New York, from The Cunard Steam Ship Company; however, when he did return, he did so on the American Lines liner,
Philadelphia, which he boarded at Liverpool on the 11th September!
He returned to his employment as a grocery store assistant, and then he was drafted into the U.S. Army on the 27th September 1918. His serial number was 2534814, and he served as a private with the 152 Depot Brigade until he was honourably discharged on the 14th December, no doubt because World War I was over, and the U.S. Army was reducing to its peacetime strength.
On the 18th September 1921, he married Honora “Nora” Theresa O’Leary, in the Bronx, New York City. They couple went on to have three children – Eileen May, born in 1922, Mary Teresa, born in 1924, and Patricia Jeanette, born in 1935. The family resided at 101st Avenue, Queens, New York City. Before his marriage, Patrick had become a plumber, and then, at a later stage, he worked for Sheffield Farms Milk Company as a stableman, tending to their horses..
It is not known when, or under what circumstances, Patrick Hanley returned to Ireland, but when he died in Belmont, Castleconnell, County Limerick, on the 19th February 1965, aged 76 years, it was stated that he was a widower, and had last been employed as a ‘bank detective’..
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917 – 1918, New York Abstracts of World War I Military Service 1917 – 1919, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards 1942, Limerick Leader, Liverpool Record Office, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/11, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.