Bridget “Delia” Stenson was born in Knockahoney, Banada, County Sligo, Ireland in 1865, the daughter of Austin and Winifred Stenson (née O’Donnell). Her family were farmers.
In the early 1890’s, she had emigrated to the United States of America, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where she obtained work as a cook. She was unmarried and had a number of siblings who also lived and worked in America. By 1915, she was residing at 92. Mount Pleasant Avenue, Roxbury, a suburb of Boston.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return home for a holiday, and having booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania, from New York to Liverpool, she left Boston sometime in April and arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city, on the morning of 1st May 1915.
She boarded in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o’clock sailing but had to wait until the early afternoon for the vessel to actually set sail, as the Lusitania had to embark passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned at the end of April, by the British Admiralty, for war work as a troop ship. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the ‘Greyhound of the Seas’ was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank just eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was only 250 miles from the safety of her home port.
One of the victims of this action was, unfortunately, Delia Stenson, who must have seen her native land on the morning of 7th May, but would never set foot on it again!
On 28th May 1915, the Cunard office in Queenstown or Liverpool received a cable from the Boston office which sought information about Miss Stenson’s fate and stated: -
DELIA STENSON ABOUT 50 YEARS FAIR COMPLEXION, HAIR FAIR, TURNING GRAY. 5 FEET HIGH ABOUT 170 LBS WEIGHT. GOOD FEATURES WITH A LARGE BROWN MOLE EXACTLY ON TOP OF HER NOSE. TEETH GOOD, ONE EYE TOOTH CAPPED WITH GOLD. HAD A GOLD FILLED WALTHAM WATCH WITH THE INITIALS B.E.S. ON IT. SISTER MRS M. GILL, 915, ALBANY STREET, ROXBURY, MASS., DESIRES INFORMATION
Mrs. M. Gill was her sister, Winifred, who was married to a man named Martin Gill.
Despite the fullness of this description, it was eventually concluded that Delia Stenson
was not amongst the unidentified dead and as a consequence, she has no known grave.
Correspondence from Rev. F.H. Quinn, Tourlestrane, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, to the Cunard Steamship Company in the weeks following the sinking, reveal that a survivor, Miss Annie Rowan, also from County Sligo, was friendly with Delia Stenson while on board, and spent a lot of time in her company. A rumour to the effect that Miss Rowan was present when Delia Stenson was taken, alive, from the sea, but later died of exposure, proved to be completely false. Miss Rowan confirmed this in a letter to the company.
The initials B.E.S. in the Waltham watch were probably her own initials.
Ireland Catholic Parish Registers 1655 – 1915, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Cunard Records, Boston Globe, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/293, UniLiv.PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.