TOPIC:

The Crew Agreement of the 16th September 1902 sailing, which seems to be Doctor St. Stephens' last in service for Cunard.

Dr. St. Stephens travelled out to Boston to get married on the 27th December 1902 sailing of the RMS Umbria with ticket number L29531. A Gentleman.
The RMS Umbria also did her bit during the war with two round trips as Transport #77.
Certainly nothing to do with the bomb plot!

Thinking about Dr. St. Stephen's' duty aboard the ships he travelled on, I looked to see if anyone had died on any of the crossings - he would have had to sign the death certificate. Fortunately, it seems that none of his passengers ever died on him, although two people died in the late January 1903 crossing, which he did not sail on. A young Swedish girl and one other person. Both buried at sea.

I did however find a fatal event on his watch. On 27th October 1900, just after leaving Boston, the RMS Saxonia, in heavy fog, struck and sunk the "Mary Mosquito". The Mary Mosquito had a Portuguese crew of 16, 15 were recovered alive and landed in Queenstown on 4th November. The sixteenth drowned but it is unknown if his body was recovered or not.

The event of 27th October 1900 was widely reported in November 1900, New York Times etc. Here is a cutting from the 10th November 1900 Cape Girardeau Democrat, page two. Quite a bit away from the event.


Doctor St. Stephens will have no doubt treated the 15 survivors.

Fortunately the Doctor had long since left Cunard by the time of this mess in 1911. Reported in the Boston Medical Journal.

He sailed to Boston on RMS Ivernia on 27th November 1905. A saloon passenger. His nationality and age are incorrect, he is 37 and English. not 32 and Foreign.

The 1911 census finds him boarding in Paignton with his wife, who is "British" though born in Massachusetts. No children.