04/01/2026
Irving Azariah Stuttaford
The Only Canadian on the Atlantic
(Bob Chaulk April 1, 2026)
Irving Azariah Stuttaford is the only Canadian we can definitively identify as having been aboard the Atlantic on her last voyage. He was from Ontario, probably Kingston, and was born in the early 1850s. He had had to find his way in the world, having lost his father Azariah when he was a little boy. His mother Amelia died when he was 13. He had nobody to take him in so he had no option but to go to work. By then, he and his mother had been living in Montreal, where there was always work on one of the many ships that came and went. He had an adventurous life before settling down to raise a family.
For the next twenty years, his wits and his drive took him to a lot of places. He is known to have lived at least ten addresses in cities like New York, Chicago, and Montreal. By 1871 he had made his way to New York and on December 2nd he signed on as a waiter at Mrs. Langdon’s home on Washington Square. Clearly, this orphan was at least polite, presentable, and competent to be serving the bluebloods of New York. Mrs. Langdon’s formal dining room was one of many that Irving would see in his lifetime, when he managed large banquets and reception for Montreal elites like the Molsons, Lord Stanley, the creator of the Stanley Cup and the Allans, whose ocean liners were regulars in Halifax for decades. He even worked as an assistant to Lord Strathcona, President of the Bank of Montreal and a founder of the CPR. Not bad for a relatively uneducated orphan. He was a bit like Mark Twain, who used to say that he never allowed his schooling to get in the way of his education.
He was an avid swimmer, a skill he passed on to his descendants. Two of his sons, Henry Irving and Irving Azariah Jr. became champion swimmers in Montreal. They were known for being the first to dive into the St Lawrence in the spring, earning them the ‘fur-lined bathtub’ award. In 1907, at the age of 55, their father won a medal with the Montreal Swim Club’s Water Polo team. He was the goal-keeper. With those skills and tolerance for cold water, it’s a safe bet to assume he swam ashore from the stricken Atlantic in the early morning hours of April 1, 1873.
He was one of the forty-two stewards aboard the Atlantic. Within the stewards group were many professions such as cooks, waiters, bartenders, and other jobs associated with taking care of the passengers. He would have been a fairly junior steward at that point but he used that experience to build a career as a caterer, beginning at Alfred Joyce’s Confectionery, where he learned the bakery business. Before long, he was travelling to the US on behalf of other employers.
At the age of 30, he could afford a trip to Europe, his first time on a ship since his experience on the Atlantic. This time he was a tourist visiting London and Paris. It must have been an emotional experience landing in Liverpool, the port from which the Atlantic made her last voyage.
From Irving Stuttaford’s three great granddaughters the SS Atlantic Heritage Park received the only artifact that we can positively identify as being from somebody on the Atlantic’s last trip. It’s a pin he had made from a Canadian 25 cent piece.
Irving was a wanderer and a go-getter and a great lover of plays, musicals, and operas, having attended hundreds over his lifetime. He logged each show he attended like a birdwatcher logs sightings of birds. His work took him all over the United States to the grandest houses and halls. When he married, he and his Irish wife Ellen Catherine Griffin had five children, including a pair of twins. He became a successful businessman and was able to leave his children generous inheritances when he died in 1935.
