Bravery at Sea. Stewardess Kate Gilmour

There’s been recent discussion in the media about the appalling behaviour of passengers in air crashes, some of them holding up swift escape because they insist on retrieving their carry-on luggage. Why, when your very life is on the line, would you worry about your stuff?

On the positive side, all credit must go to those cabin crew who have to handle such situations without “losing it” themselves. While some individuals behave in strange and irrational ways in life and death situations, others manage to rise to the best they can be.

This is the first in a series of posts about women who have remained cool in crisis situations - especially forgotten heroines of the sea - and whose stories have slipped out of history. Most don’t even warrant a Wikipedia entry so often there is no definite starting point for research into them other than a few lines in the newspaper archives.

Stewardess Kate Gilmour was the first ever female recipient of the Lloyd’s Medal for Saving Life at Sea in an incident sometimes known as Malta’s Titanic, the disastrous end to the SS Sardinia. (The best website giving comprehensive details of this tragedy is that of The Malta Independent - click here to read in full.)

Sample of the medal from the National Maritime Museum

Born in Edinburgh around 1861, nothing can be found on Kate’s early life but by her thirties she was single and living in Liverpool. As she may have always been away from the country at the times of the Census Returns, only one that can be confirmed is that from 1891, when a Kate [Gilmore], occupation “Seas Stewardess”, was a boarder with the Murray family at 34 Samuel Street, Liverpool.

She appears in a number of Crew Lists as Stewardess, and among the vessels she served on were SS Rameses, SS Cretic and SS Orotova, not always giving the same age, however, and she seems to have stayed 38 for quite a number of years! Her address in England was always the same, i.e. 128 Belmont Road, Liverpool.

Khedivial Mail Line, SS Rameses at Malta

Kate was the sole female member of the crew of the Ellerman and Papayanni Line SS Sardinia when it set sail from Liverpool in November 1908 with 25 first class, 6 second class passengers and general cargo, bound for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ports. Twelve of the original passengers were still on board when the vessel left Malta for Alexandria in Egypt and Jeddah, the port for Mecca. In Malta, the number of passengers increased to around 200, consisting of a large group of Arabs on pilgrimage. Without cabins, they simply pitched tents on the upper deck for shelter during the short passage.

About one mile out of Grand Harbour, Malta, at 11 am on  25 November 1908, the steamer caught fire in the forward hold - it was believed to have originated in a quantity of naphtha but the inquiry found that it may have been through the carelessness of the pilgrims.

The fire was witnessed from Malta and all kinds of rescue vessels set out, but the fierce wind blowing made it difficult to assist. Captain Charles Littler did everything he could to save his ship but he had to abandon the wheel and the vessel circled helplessly close to the shore. Then came repeated explosions with dense smoke and flames 200 feet high. Hatches blew off, killing all in the vicinity. All in the engine room were trapped and perished. Eventually the ship foundered on the Riscasoli Rocks.

General panic ensued. Some individuals including a number of crew members, immediately jumped overboard, while others remained and strove heroically to try and save the ship and its passengers in an orderly fashion with the use of lifebelts. 

One of these was Kate Gilmour who kept her nerve and did everything she could to ensure that the passengers - women and children in particular - were safely off before leaving the  ship herself.

A survivor wrote:

“We left Liverpool with a full cargo of machinery and Manchester goods for Alexandria. Our bunkers had been supplied with enough coal at Liverpool to last us until our return to Malta.The Sardinia left Malta at 9.45 this morning.We had just got outside the harbour, and the crew were engaged in securing the port anchors, when suddenly a cry of ‘Fire’ was heard and fumes were seen to issue from a ventilator on the port side. A hose was promptly turned on and a stream of water was poured down the ventilator. This, however, did no good, as in a few minutes flames started out of the other ventilators and in less than 10 minutes the whole vessel amidships was enveloped in flames. The Arab passengers - 140 Moorish pilgrims, going to Mecca –were told to leave the hatch, to which they clung desperately, but they declined to move. All of those who remained forward perished, except some of those who jumped overboard”.

Copyright

So near yet so far ... the rescue in progress

The final death toll was two European passengers - one of them being Douglas, four-year-old child of James Gordon and Jessie Grant - 16 crew members - including the Captain, First Mate, R. Frew, Chief Engineer, J. Niel, and 2nd Engineer D. Hislop, and more than 100 Arab passengers - although only 23 bodies were ever recovered. All the Arab pilgrims that were found were buried in the Turkish cemetery on Malta.

British and international newspapers carried the story - this from the Aberdeen Press and Journal

SARDINIA SURVIVORS
AFFECTING SCENE ON ARRIVAL
How Young Grant was Lost

The remains of Captain Littler of the Ellerman Liner, Sardinia, destroyed by fire at Malta were to-day taken from the Venetian at Liverpool and removed to Birkenhead for the funeral tomorrow.

Survivors of the crew with the exception of five still in hospital at Malta, also returned by the Venetian, and affecting scenes were witnessed on the quayside.

Survivors, who had evidently been cautioned not to make statements, refused to say anything when questioned about the disaster. They were escorted to cabs and rapidly driven away with friends.

Miss Kate Gilmour, stewardess of the Sardinia, who remained on the Venetian, spoke feelingly of the loss of Mr and Mrs Grant’s little boy. He was a great favourite on board, she said, passengers calling him the fourth mate. A brave effort to save him was made by the second officer, who strapped the lad on his back and jumped into the sea, but the boy was washed away.

A month later, the newspaper reported: -

THE SARDINIA DISASTER

LLOYD’S MEDAL FOR A STEWARDESS

 The Committee of Lloyd’s have decided to bestow the silver medal of the society upon Miss Kate Gilmour, stewardess of the steamer Sardinia, which was destroyed by fire off Malta on November 25, as honorary acknowledgement of her extraordinary exertions in contributing saving life that Miss Gilmour, her coolness and courageous conduct greatly contributed to saving many lives, as she remained aboard encouraging panic-stricken Arabs to avail themselves of the only means of escape, and it was not till the women and children were rescued that she was persuaded to board a boat.

This is the first occasion which Lloyd’s medal for saving life at sea has been bestowed upon a woman.

And in July of the following year: -

INVESTITURE AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE

The King [Edward VII] held an investiture at Buckingham Palace yesterday, at which he personally bestowed the insignia of various honours conferred on the occasion of His Majesty’s birthday. Subsequently His Majesty received a number of men, a boy, and a lady, and bestowed upon them awards for gallantry in saving or attempting to save life by land and sea. Miss Kate Gilmour received a silver medal for gallantry on the occasion of the burning of the Sardinia in Malta Harbour. Miss Gilmour who is the first lady thus decorated, was stewardess of the Sardinia and was almost the last to leave the ship after being instrumental in saving many lives by her coolness and courage.

After being awarded the Medal, Kate promptly disappears from the records and she does not appear to have continued with her career as ship’s stewardess.

What happened to her? Did she emigrate? Did she marry? Or did she simply change her name in order to escape her brief moments of fame? 

Research is ongoing. If anyone reading this knows anything else about Kate Gilmour, please do contact me.

 

The story of the brave stewardess Kate Gilmour was told many years later in the Melbourne Argus 3 September 1936