Mabel Irving was born in Keswick, Cumberland, England, on the 3rd December 1880, the daughter, and eldest of three children, of Thomas and Jane Irving (née Bainbridge). Her father was a domestic gardener, and shortly after her birth, the family moved to Wylam, Northumberland, where Thomas Irving secured work at Holeyn Hall. The family later moved to 2. Temperley Place, Hexham, Northumberland, and Mabel, on completion of her education, became a dressmaker.
She later entered domestic service and became a maid to a Mrs Lewinsky. Thus she arrived in New York City on board the Mauretania on the 26th February 1910, her passage having been paid by her employer.
It is not known for how long she stayed in this employment, but on the 14th July 1914, she married an American, William Docherty, in and she became an American citizen upon her marriage. They lived in Long Island, New York, and their son, William, known as ‘Billy‘, was born on the 5th March 1915.
In the spring of 1915 Mabel Docherty decided to return to Hexham to visit her parents and no doubt introduce them to their new grandson. Consequently, she booked herself and Billy on the May sailing of the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, leaving her husband at home. They joined the vessel at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of New York on the morning of 1st May, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o’clock departure.
This was then postponed until the early afternoon whilst the liner loaded cargo and took on board passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship. Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, when only twelve or fourteen hours away from her Liverpool destination.
At the moment the torpedo struck, Mabel Docherty was in the second cabin dining room, with her infant son, despite the fact that the Lusitania had its own excellent nursery. She immediately left the dining room and made her way up to the boat deck. The ship was already listing heavily to starboard and despite the fact that she was told by an officer that the ship was not going to sink; she nevertheless climbed into one of the lifeboats, which was already full!
Her ordeal was not over, however, for although the lifeboat was one of the few to be successfully launched, it only just escaped being swamped by the four giant funnels of the vessel as she heeled over and sank. The down draught of this movement actually swept the loosely tied bonnet from Billy’s head as it swept past. This lifeboat was possibly No. 13.
Having been rescued from the sea, mother and son were both landed at Queenstown, from where Mabel Docherty was able to send a telegram to her parents, informing them that she and Billy had been saved.
This must have been a most welcome relief for Mr. and Mrs. Irving as they knew that she was travelling on the Lusitania and had already heard the news of her sinking. No doubt Mabel Docherty also cabled her husband, who was stated at that time to be in Alaska.
Mabel Docherty applied for help to The Lusitania Relief Fund set up by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen to give aid to those survivors or relatives of the dead from second or third class, who were experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the sinking. The awards committee made her a single payment of a mere £5-0s-0d. Mabel also made a successful claim for $3,800.00 under the Alien Property Bill on her return to the United States of America.
Mabel Docherty and her son eventually returned to the United States on the St. Paul in November 1915, where they settled at Willow Place, Nutley, and then 293. Chestnut Street, Nutley. Mabel Docherty was interviewed by a reporter from The Nutley Sun as the 45th anniversary of the sinking approached, and in the article that appeared in the newspaper on the 28th April 1960 stated: -
“With my baby, I had a cabin two decks below the dining room in the second class quarters towards the stern,” Mrs. Docherty recalled, this week, in discussing her memory of the events with The Nutley Sun.
“I had gone late to luncheon and, for the first time on the trip, I had carried my baby with me. I thank God that I did, because the water engulfed my cabin within minutes after the torpedo struck and had I left him there he would have been drowned.
“The torpedo hit the Lusitania just as I sat down to my meal, holding my baby on my lap. The boat shuddered because the first of the many explosions was severe enough to tear a hole two decks high, deep under water. Passengers became hysterical and I was horrified.
“Not knowing just what I should do, for I had no lifebelt, I stood to one side as other passengers ran across the sloping decks. As the Lusitania listed, loose furniture and crockers [sic.] slid across the deck and knocked many people over.
CLIMBED HIGHER.
“An officer forbid me to return to my stateroom, telling me that it was already flooded. It was an act of Providence that I had taken my son with me that day. With the officer helping me, I climbed to higher decks. All the time, the Lusitania listed more and more to her starboard side.
“As we reached the promenade deck we found that all of the life-boats there had been launched. With my baby in one arm, I had to climb one-handed, a rope ladder to the boat deck. The captain, William Turner, who stood on the bridge kept calling; “Women and children first”.
“There were but two lifeboats left, but the next to the last was so full that there was no room. The last lifeboat filled rapidly, but two men stepped back on the deck and I got in with my baby. It was just a step because the liner was already so far on her side that the lifeboat was already afloat as it hung in its davits.
“Just as we pulled away, one of the four great funnels crashed and we were barely a hundred feet away when the stern of the Lusitania rose steeply and the ship nosed down into the sea to disappear in a great swirl which threatened to suck up into a whirlpool.
“BABY GAVE ME COURAGE”
“We were on the water four hours when a fishing smack picked us up and by midnight landed us. When we reached our haven our lifeboat was a sorry sight. One woman lay dead in the bottom. All of us were drenched by waves, and were out by excitement and fear. Had it not been for my baby, I might not have had the courage to carry on.”
Captain Turner went down with his ship but was pulled from the sea and survived. The 722 passengers who survived were saved chiefly, by the prompt action of the assistant keeper of the Old Head light. He had had the Lusitania under observation, with his glasses, and saw the torpedo hit. He telephoned the news to Kinsale, which relayed news of the catastrophe to Cork and to Queenstown, whence dozens of trawlers put out to save lives. Trawlers which were fishing near by also picked up passengers from the boats and rafts.
“My boy was the only real baby to survive this torpedoing”, Mrs. Docherty recalls, “and at Queenstown where the fishing boat landed the survivors of our lifeboat, the Irish women showered him with kisses and it seemed could not do enough for us. Except for a slight cold which the baby developed, we escaped any harm”.
Mabel Docherty was mistaken in her statement that hers was the only baby to survive, although most did perish as a result of the sinking.
Mother and son eventually returned to the United States and lived there for the rest of their lives, although on settling her claim with the Mixed Claims Commission for $3,000.00 in 1928, she made another visit to England with her son, their voyages proving uneventful on this occasion.
In September 1919, Mabel gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Olive Kathleen Docherty.
Mabel Docherty died at Virginia Beach, Virginia, on the 5th May 1966, aged 85 years. She was interred at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens, Norfolk, Virginia.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, New York Birth Index 1910 – 1965, New York County Marriage Records 1907 – 1936, Virginia Death Records 1912 – 2014, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, Cunard Records, Liverpool Records Office, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, Nutley Sun, Seven Days to Disaster, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.