Iwan Tomaszewicz was born in Tsarist Russia in 1887. Some time probably before the outbreak of the Great War, he had left his native land, however, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States of America, settling in Bayonne, New Jersey, where he found employment, probably as a labourer.
In the spring of 1915, however, he decided to return home, probably being mindful of his patriotic duty and the poor military showing of the Imperial Russian forces against those of the Central Powers.
Consequently, he booked third class passage on the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool for the first part of his journey home and travelling from Bayonne at the end of April, he boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, on the morning of 1st May 1915. The liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure was then delayed until the early afternoon of that day as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from Anchor Liner the Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
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, the Cunarder was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from 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. Iwan Tomaszewicz was one of the lucky ones who survived and after having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown. Some Russian survivors later complained to The Russian Ambassador in Liverpool about their poor treatment at the hands of the British Authorities at Queenstown and it is to be hoped that Tomaszewicz was not one of these.
It is not known if he ever made it back to his homeland or if he did, if he survived the war and the subsequent revolutions In Russia. He was 28 years old at the time of the sinking.
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Copyright © Peter Kelly.