whitnee,
Thanks for that information. I thought I saw some similarities between your good self and one of the correspondents in the Ahoy Forum about the sinking of SS Athenia.
Mac Gregory is a friend of mine, and I am actually seeking the passenger lists on his behalf.
As part of his research about the SS Athenia's tragic last voyage he is trying to compile a list of survivors. Due to the survivors having been picked up by a variety of ships and subsequently disembarked at a number of ports, there was apparently never any consolidated list of survivors published.
Here is Mac Gregory's consolidated page about SS Athenia:
http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/Copyo ... sabou.html
I'm hoping that Schiehallion will assist me by providing some images of the passenger lists he or she has. From that, Mac Gregory will be able to deduct the list of those that perished to arrive at a passenger survivors' list which will be close to comprehensive. It is believed that some passengers may have journeyed without being listed.
Another avenue I am following up is via the City of Glasgow Archives, which is the repositry for the now defunct Donaldson Line's records. I belive that the ship owners would almost certainly have had a comprehensive list of passenger and crew survivors in their records.
You mention John F. Kennedy. It is true that he was despatched by his father, Joseph Kennedy then U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, to interview Athenia survivors. See this item from Time Magazine of September 18, 1939:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... rnalid=AFM
Whitnee, you and I are far from Glasgow, but I'm sure those in Glasgow will be interested to know that the Glasgow Transport Museum is going to mount an exhibition or display in 2009 about the SS Athenia. Here's the note about that on the Ahoy Forum from the curator Emily Malcolm:
http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/Letters/Glasg ... porte.html
I was going to mention this exhibition/display to Schiehallion when he or she got in contact with me, but now's a good a time as any. Those passenger lists sound like something the museum would like to get a look at and perhaps have on loan.
Mac has pointed out the surprising level of interest in the SS Athenia, and until I read about the sinking on his Ahoy! weblog I was ignorant of the historic significance of the ship.
A personal note: Mac Gregory and my father served at the same time during World War II aboardd HMAS Shropshire, one of the Royal Australian Navy's distinguised war fighting ships, although they did not know each other.
HMAS Shropshire (previously HMS Shropshire) was a gift from the people and government of Great Britain to the Australian Government to replace HMAS Canberra which had been sunk in the Battle of Savo Island. As it happens Mac Gregory was on HMAS Canberra when it was sunk and his tale of survival can be read here:
http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/Savo/Savo9Wearehit.html