Laura Mabel Francatelli
Laura Mabel Francatelli was a 31 year old first class passenger travelling aboard Titanic as part of her employment as fasion designer Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon's secretary. With Lady Duff-Gordon and her husband Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon she boarded Titanic at Cherbourg, France on 10th April 1912, heading to America where Lady Duff Gordon was to take care of business.
Laura Francatelli was born to Charles and Elizabeth Francatelli on 21st April 1880 in Lambeth, London. By 1892 she is known to have had 6 sisters, 4 surviving and two brothers, one surviving. In 1912 she was still a resident of London.
Onboard Titanic she occupied cabin 36 on E Deck, while her employers occupied cabins 16 and 20 above on A Deck. During the sinking Laura Francatelli accompanied the Duff-Gordon's up to the starboard side Boat Deck; while there she and Lady Duff-Godon were encouraged by the crew to get into the lifeboats, but they refused to do so without Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon and stood back as the lifeboats were filled and lowered.
Eventually after the order had been given to lower the starboard side emergency boat (Lifeboat 1), with there being very few people around, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon asked if they could board the boat, and the three of them were allowed to do so. Lifeboat 1 is unavoidably notable for, with an official maximum capacity of 40, for leaving Titanic and arriving at the rescue ship with 12 people aboard, made up of three male passengers, 2 female passengers and 7 male crew members.
After being rescued from the lifeboat, Laura Francatelli and her employers were landed in New York by RMS Carpathia on 18th April 1912, three days before Laura's 32nd birthday.
In August 1913 Laura Francatelli married Max Haering, described as being a hotelier.
In 1916 she, now Laura Mabel Haering, sailed to America to join Lady Duff-Gordon who was residing there in New York at the time, and went on, with her husband, to herself reside and settle in New York, where for a time Max Haering was the resident manager of the Gotham Hotel, a large luxury hotel located in Manhattan, New York. In early 1941 Max took over as the proprietor of the substantial Amber Lantern Restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York.
It seems Laura Mabel Haering spent her later years back home in Britain, living in London, where she died in Hampstead on 2nd June 1967. Max Haering had passed away in 1951.
Related pages - Titanic Lookouts and Crow's Nest, All Titanic Pages