Andrej Ordyniec was born in Zarndzie, near Lublin, Poland, which was then part of Imperial Russia in 1867. Nothing is known of his life in Poland except that he was married to a woman named Sofia, and they had at least two sons.
On January 30th 1912, he arrived in New York in the United States of America, from Bremen, Germany on board the lines vessel Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm. He then settled in Syracuse, New York, where he found work as a labourer and resided at 1624. Hawley Avenue.
In the spring of 1915, however, he decided to return home, perhaps out of patriotic duty as the Russian Army was faring very badly at that time against the forces of the Central Powers fighting on the Eastern Front. It is believed that his two sons were fighting with the Russian Army at that time.
As a result, for the first part of his journey, he booked third class passage on the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool and with ticket number 38940, boarded the liner on the morning of 1st May 1915 at her berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city, in time for her scheduled 10 o‘clock departure. This was then delayed until the early afternoon, as she had to embark passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned at the end of April. The Lusitania finally got under way just after noon. Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 within sight of the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from the safety of her home port.
There were 69 Russian nationals on board the Lusitania when she was sunk and of these, 40 perished, including Andrej Ordyniec. He was aged 48 years at the time of his death.
His body was eventually recovered from the sea two months afterwards, however, at the beginning of July 1915, at Ballaghaline, Doolin, in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, about 200 miles from where the liner had been torpedoed. After such a long time immersed in the water, it would have been impossible to make a positive visual identification of it and it was given the reference number 1, as it was the first of (eventually) 20 corpses recovered in that area after July. On 10th July 1915, it was buried in Killilagh Churchyard, in Doolin, where it lies today.
It was described as: -
Male body (unrecognisable) recovered at Ballaghaline, Doolin, height 5’ 9”, wore heavy grey woollen jersey pyjamas, striped trousers ..... stout, 40 to 50 years, perhaps labourer and Russian Pole.
Documents discovered on the body included a leather purse containing a U.S. dollar bill, 25 Russian rouble bills, assorted U.S. coins, a letter, a crucifix, a piece of indelible pencil, a calling card, printed in Cyrillic script, the stub of a money order and a theatrical bill from Krakow, Poland, which featured a performer named Thadeus Sowinski, and a visiting card bearing the name Dr. A.W. Rusin.
The Cunard Steam Ship Company wrote to Dr. Rusin, who was a resident of Syracuse, and he confirmed the identity of Andrej Ordyniec, having carried out investigations at Mr. Ordyniec’s residence and place of work. He also stated that he believed that Andrej Ordyniec had $1,000 in his possession when he boarded the Lusitania.
Later study of the Cyrillic calling card by the Russian Consul-General at 30, Bedford Square, London, reinforced the belief that the body was that of Andrej Ordyniec.
The property taken from the body before burial was despatched to the Imperial Russian Consul-General, on 4th January 1916, for forwarding to Ordyniec’s relatives in Russia.
Cunard records state that Andrej Ordyniec’s name was Ordyniez, but this is believed to be incorrect.
New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Syracuse Herald, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.