"Sad Goodbye" - Manhattan, NY 1902

A sad goodbye for a young family seeing a loved one sail off on the steamship “Cymric” from Hudson River pier 48 in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1902.

The “Cymric”, built in 1898 could carry over 1,400 passengers. It was owned by the White Star Line (which also later owned the “Titanic”).  It is setting sail for Liverpool, England, its main passenger service route until 1903 when it transferred to the Boston-Liverpool route for 9 years; returning to New York service in 1912.

The “Cymric” is being pushed away from the pier by the wooden steam-powered tugboat “Lewis Pulver, built in 1886. The tug, owned by the John E. Moore of New York, unfortunately sank in 1903 after a collision with another tug in New York Bay. It was raised and later acquired in 1928 by the Moran Towing Co.

Tragically, the “Cymric” was sunk by a torpedo attack from the German U-boat U-20 in May 1916 (same U-boat that sank the “Lusitania”). It was carrying 149 passengers and crew at the time, but only 5 British citizens were killed, and since England was at war with Germany at the time there were no international repercussions. Between 1914 and 1918 about 50 large oceangoing passenger steamships converted to war purpose troop transports and floating hospitals were sunk in the Atlantic by the German navy.  The “Cymric” came to be thirty-seventh on the list.