Nothing is known of Joseph Sikora except that it is believed he was born in Poland, then part of Imperial Russia around 1883. Sometime before the Great War, he had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Buffalo, New York, where he worked as a labourer.
By the spring of 1915, however, he had decided to return to his native home, perhaps to enlist in the Imperial Russian Army. He travelled the short distance to New York City, where he had booked third cabin passage on the Lusitania for England, on the first part of his journey, and boarded the vessel at Pier 54 in New York harbour, on the morning of 1st May.
The liner’s departure was delayed until the early afternoon to embark crew, passengers and cargo from the requisitioned liner Cameronia and just before 12.30 p.m. she slipped into the North River and out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Six days later the liner was torpedoed and sunk by Kapitänleutnant Schwieger’s submarine U-20, within sight of the southern Irish coast and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Joseph Sikora was killed as a result of the sinking and as his body was never recovered and identified after the sinking, he has no known grave. He was aged 32 years.
Cunard Records, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.