Lusitania Questions

[carolegif]

I had a great uncle who perished when the Lusitania was sunk. He is listed as 'died' rather than 'missing'. Does this mean his body was recovered? He was an engine trimmer so I always thought he would have gone down with the ship.
Also, his death is registered as being on 6th May 1915, but I thought the ship went down on the 7th.

[boxtops]

It was 7th when it was torpedoed and sank. Is there a chance that he might have died of other reasons, the day before, but his body then would have gone down with the ship?

Have you seen his death certificate (if there was one) - as this would state the cause of death?

[jno]

it was the 7th. Perhaps he actually died the previous day of something else altogether. You'd probably need to know who registered the death, who wrote "dead" and so on - a matter of where you're getting your information from?

[carolegif]

He is on the official Lusitania website as died. I did put a note on Find My Past and have just checked and they have altered it, so it must have been an error on their transcription.

[jno]

who altered what, the date or the description or both?

[carolegif]

Seems the day was changed to 7th.

Thanks guys!

[jno]

there must be some record of whether bodies were recoveered or not, perhaps in old newspapers (particularly local ones where your great uncle lived?); but I wouldn't hold out too much hope for that.

[heathfield]

To be listed as 'died' leaves open the cause of death. Many of the Titanic's passengers were initially listed 'Cause of Death - Drowning'. Some of these records were later altered to 'Cause of death - Suspected drowning'. In fact, autopsies of bodies recovered from the water revealed that many presumed to have drowned had no water in the lungs. This pointed to hypothermia being the real cause of death.