Belle Saunders was born in Charlotte, Michigan, in the United States of America, on the 22nd October 1865, the daughter of Joseph and Lydia Saunders (née Dwinelle). Her father was a printer.
Belle became a school teacher, and on the 19th June 1911, in Detroit, Michigan, she married Theodore Naish, who was born in England, but had become a citizen of the United States in 1891. They lived at 2926. Penn Valley Place, Kansas City, Missouri.
Her husband was a civil engineer, employed by the Department of Public Works in Kansas City, and he had bought 180 acres of land around Edwardsville, Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, shortly before they married.
The couple built a summer lodge on the land and spent the summer months there. Her husband had become involved in the Methodist Church in Edwardsville, as did Belle, becoming a Sunday School teacher. In the spring of 1915, the couple decided to go on a belated honeymoon to England, where Theodore intended to introduce Belle to his family there.
At the end of April 1915, the couple set out from their Kansas City home and travelled by rail to New York, where they had booked second cabin passage across the Atlantic on the Lusitania. They joined the vessel at Pier 54 on the morning of 1st May, in time for her delayed sailing out of the harbour, which began just after mid-day. They were assigned a cabin on “D” deck.
Six days later, when she was off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 and although Belle Naish survived the sinking, her husband Theodore was lost.
Many years later, in the early 1980s, her story of the events of the sinking was described to Des Hickey and Gus Smith for their book Seven Days to Disaster. She had just left her husband Theodore, who was seasick, in their cabin and on his advice, had gone on deck to see the coast of Ireland which was visible about twelve miles away: -
Belle Naish, had turned from the rail and was halfway to the second class entrance when she heard “a crash.“ ..... Her clothes soaked by the water that showered on the deck, she was confronted by a tide of passengers pouring out of the companionway. She wanted desperately to join her husband on D deck, but these people were cursing and shrieking. Terrified that the crowd would carry her over the rail of the tilting deck into the sea, she doggedly fought her way through them. By the time she reached D deck the last passengers in the thinning group were trying to help one another.
She found Theodore, who had forgotten the discomfort of his seasickness, freeing the tapes of their life-jackets. She helped him on with his jacket. then he with hers, and to save time they each tied the other's tapes at the neck, chest and waist. .....
An officer assured Belle Naish, “She's all right, She'll float for an hour.” Gauging the widening angle between the deck rail and the horizon Mrs. Naish knew this simply wasn't true. “We're sinking fast,” she told Theodore. “It can't be long now.”
The couple continued helping passengers don their lifejackets correctly. One woman was persuaded to remove her fur coat before putting on her life-jacket. They tied another woman's life-jacket tapes securely, but could not persuade her to remove an enormous hat with a long floating veil. A woman in a heavy woollen coat with a large fur collar had strapped a child of about two years inside her life-jacket. “If you want to save your child,” Theodore advised, “you'd better take him out of that life-jacket, or else you'll both go down“. .....
Just as the liner took her final plunge, a great green wave burst along the deck, driving everything before it and sweeping Belle and Theodore Naish into the sea.
It came without warning to Belle Naish as she helped a woman put on a life-jacket; hearing a “roar and a splintering sound” she threw up her left hand as though to ward off a blow and found the water up to her waist; it felt dreadfully cold when it rose to her shoulders. Then the water pushed her upward and forward until she found herself resting on the pillow of her life-jacket, thinking, “How beautiful the sunlight and water are from under the surface.” She felt a bump against her head. She put up her hand, saw the blue sky and found herself clinging to the lifeline of lifeboat No. 22. .....
A man reached down to her saying, “Give me your hand. My back is hurt, but I'll do what I can.” “I can hold on,” Belle told him. “Take somebody else.” “Come on,” he said. “There's no one else I can reach.” She gave him her hand, fearing her weight might overturn the boat and drag those already saved into the water. But he hauled her safely on board, cold and shivering. When Belle got her breath back she remembered that deep intakes of air sharply expelled keep a person warm in cold weather. She suggested they all try it, which they did. Then she informed them it was through divine providence they had been shipwrecked on a clear day with a calm sea, a soft breeze and the sun on their backs.
One man took out his mouth organ and began to play. Cyril Wallace, on his way to Northumberland to join the Army, had bought the mouth organ in Cleveland and could manage even the bass notes. Belle realised he was playing to cheer up the other survivors, but somebody asked, “Don't you think you should stop playing? Otherwise we won't hear any cries for help?” Wallace replaced the instrument in his pocket.
Fellow second cabin passenger, Cyril Wallace, the son of a serving soldier survived the sinking and having got back home to Alnwick, in Northumberland, carried out his intention to join the Army, only to die on active service in France, two months before the end of the war!
The occupants of Lifeboat No. 22 were eventually rescued from the sea by the trawler Julia, after which Belle Naish was instrumental in saving the life of saloon passenger Theodate Pope, whom she had met on the crossing. Miss Pope had been floating in the sea for some four hours and had lapsed into unconsciousness, supported only by a floating oar.
According to the authors Adolf and Mary Hoehling in their book The Last Voyage of the Lusitania: -
At evening Theodate Pope was discovered by the trawler Julia, almost down to its scuppers with survivors, as well as with those who did not survive. Theodate, kept afloat by an oar, was unconscious. Sailors fished her up with boat hooks and laid her on the deck among the dead.
An acquaintance of the voyage, Mrs. Theodore Naisch (sic), of Kansas City, Missouri, recognized Theodate. She just had a hunch there might be a spark of life there, even though Theodate was stiff and cold from the salt water and felt to the other woman's touch "like a sack of cement".
Mrs. Naisch persuaded two sailors to give Miss Pope artificial respiration. They cut her clothing off with a carving knife and worked patiently for nearly two hours. Finally her breathing became steady, although she remained semi-conscious for another hour or two. They wrapped her in a blanket and placed her on the floor before the charcoal fire in the captain's cabin.
Both ladies were eventually landed at Queenstown where they were put up in separate hotels and then quite independently, were invited to go to a semi-private hospital in Cork, run by a family well known in the area, to recuperate. Local newspaper The Cork Advertiser in its morning edition of Thursday 13th May 1915, told of a subsequent coincidental re-union: -
There are at present staying with a gentleman - a well known Cork citizen - and his family, two ladies, victims of the Lusitania disaster, who were brought together under rather dramatic circumstances. One of the ladies is a Mrs. Nash, (sic) who unfortunately lost her husband and the other a Miss Pope.
Neither were acquainted when on board the ship. After the explosion, Mrs. Nash was in the water a comparatively short time when she managed to climb on to an upturned boat, and sat there with thirteen others for some hours before she was picked up by a boat which came out from Queenstown.
Mrs. Nash was obviously Belle Naish - presumably her surname was pronounced 'Nash', which would account for the mis-spelling. The newspaper report was also wrong in stating that Neither were acquainted when on board the ship, as the above account proves.
Having been safely got on board, the boat proceeded on its search for bodies, dead or alive, and one of the last to be picked up was that of a lady whom the crew thought was dead. The captain of the boat asked Mrs. Nash to assist in the work of resuscitation. This she did, and ultimately the lady was brought back to consciousness.
Both ladies were landed at Queenstown with the rest of the survivors, and stayed in different hotels. The gentleman in question being interested in helping the survivors, happened to visit these two ladies. He invited them to his house and there Miss Pope recognised Mrs. Nash as the lady who helped to restore her to life. It was a pleasant meeting after such direful experiences.
Although Belle Naish eventually completed her journey to England, where she stayed with her brother-in-law, Charles Ernest Naish, at 104. Willows Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, nothing was ever seen or heard of her husband Theodore, again.
She returned to the United States of America when she boarded the Philadelphia in Liverpool on the 19th June 1915.
Belle Saunders Naish was awarded the sum of $12,500.00 by the Mixed Claims Commission for the loss of her husband, and an additional $780.00 to compensate her for the loss of their personal belongings in the sinking.
As well as receiving compensation from the Mixed Claims Commission, Belle Saunders Naish was the sole beneficiary of her husbands will, which consisted of a number of properties in and around Kansas City, personal effects, bank accounts and two life assurance policies in England.
She continued to reside in Kansas City, and in the summer months, Edwardsville. In 1925, she donated 90 acres of the land in Edwardsville to the Boy Scouts of America, and the remaining 90 acres the following year. The land is still used by the Boy Scouts of America today, named Camp Naish, in honour of Theodore and Belle.
Belle Saunders Naish died of bronchopneumonia at General Hospital No. 1, Kansas City, on the 25th August 1950, aged 84 years. Her address at the time of her death was the Rasbach Hotel, Kansas City. She was buried in Edwardsville Cemetery. The gravestone over her grave is of granite, and there is a depiction of the Lusitania sinking at the top. The inscription states: -
~ O God, our help in ages past. ~
NAISH
In Memoriam
THEODORE
BORN IN BIRMINGHAM
ENGLAND, JAN. 21. 1856.
WENT DOWN WITH THE
LUSITANIA,
ON MAY 7, 1915.
HIS WIFE
BELLE SAUNDERS
SURVIVOR
BORN IN CHARLOTTE,
MICHIGAN, OCT. 22. 1865.
AUG. 25. 1950
Michigan U.S. Marriage Records 1867 – 1952, Missouri U.S. Death Certificates 1910 – 1962, 1870 U.S. Federal Census, 1880 U.S. Federal Census, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 257, Cork Advertiser, Cork Examiner, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Seven Days to Disaster, Boy Scouts of America, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 -1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.