F. Hill (forename not known) was believed to have been born in Glasgow, Renfrewshire Scotland, in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
He was a professional sailor in the Mercantile Marine and in April 1915, he had engaged to sail to England from New York on the Anchor liner S.S. Cameronia. However, at the end of that month, the Cameronia was taken up from trade by the British Admiralty for war work and on the 1st May 1915, all the passengers and cargo and some of the crew were transferred, instead, to the Lusitania, then awaiting what became her final trans Atlantic voyage at Pier 54 in New York harbour. Waiter Hill was one of these crew members and was offered the monthly rate of pay of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25).
Six days out of New York, when she was off the southern coast of Ireland, the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, only hours away from her Liverpool destination, but fortunately, Hill was counted amongst the survivors.
Having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he eventually made it to Liverpool where he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s last voyage and paid the balance of wages owing to him. This was in respect of his sea service from the 1st May until the 8th May 1915; 24 hours after the liner had gone down.
An official list of crew known to have been on board the Lusitania when she was sunk and published by The Cunard Steam Ship Company in March 1915, does not mention Waiter Hill at all, but he does appear in a Particulars of Discharge ledger held in the Public Record Office at Richmond in Surrey.
Cunard Records, PRO BT 100.345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 9th January 2024.