Laura Francatelli, preferred to be known as Mabel, was born in London England on April 21 1880.  Her father was the great-nephew of the famous Chef Charles who was chef to Queen Victoria and later her son Edward, Prince of Wales.

 

She started working for Lady Duff-Gordon, a prominent fashion designer, in 1909 as her secretary and assistant.  Along with her younger sister Dorothy, who became a model for Lady Duff-Gordon’s fashion business. 

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In 1913 she married a Swill born hotel manager, Maximilian Haering,  in 1916 they moved to the New York and were sponsored by the Duff-Gordon’s for American Citizenship.  She became a naturalized US Citizen in April 1933.

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Link to the Titanic

 

In 1912, at age 31, she boarded the Titanic with the Duff-Gordon’s as a first class passenger and stayed in cabin E-36.

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Lady Duff-Gordon and Her assistant, Miss Francatelli, were some of the first to enter lifeboats and were in Lifeboat #1.  At that time, the other passengers really didn’t want to leave the ship so the crew was having trouble getting the lifeboat filled but they needed to get it underway so others could be lowered down.  Due to the lack of people willing to get on, Sir Duff-Gordon was told to jump in along with several of the firemen of the crew and the boat was sent off even though it wasn’t full.  The men rowed quickly away so as to make room for the others coming down so were the furthest away when the Titanic finally went under. 

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Unfortunately, the news media dubbed lifeboat #1 as the controversial “Millionaires boat”.  They accused the Duff-Gordon’s of paying the men to row away abandoning others and of Sir Duff-Gordon of paying extra to be allowed on.  There was a court of inquiry called and they were found innocent of wrong doing but suspicions continued and damage to their reputation was already done.  As Secretary to Lady Duff-Gordon, Miss Franatelli was swept up in the accusations and inquiry.

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In October 2010, an affidavit that had written to the court for the inquiry, signed by Laura Francatelli, was auctioned off that had gone into great detail of the events of that night.  “We were a long way off when we saw the Titanic go right up at the back and plunge down.  There was an awful rumbling when she went….. We had hardly any talk…… We were all in the darkness.”

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A letter from Miss Francatelli written to Abraham Salomon (a fellow Titanic survivor) six months after the sinking, was sold in an online auction for $7,500 in 2015.  Her letter describes what happened that night and goes on to say “We do hope you have now quite recovered from the terrible experience.  I am afraid our nerves are still bad as we had such trouble and anxiety added to our already awful experience by the very unjust inquiry when we arrived in London.”

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Description of Outfit​

 

Miss Laura Mabel Francatelli is being portrayed by Fran Martinez.  Her outfit is inspired by an apron worn on board the Titanic by Miss Francatelli which is now owned by the National Museums Liverpool . 

 

She is wearing;

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• White and blue cotton printed petticoat with lace trim

• Medium weight black cotton shirt waist with slightly puffed upper sleeves

• Medium weight black linen ankle length skirt – to allow for easy walking

• Detachable stiffened white cotton collar buttoned onto the shirt collar

• Detachable stiffened white cotton wrist cuffs. 

• White cotton apron with a V-shaped bid that extends over the shoulders to the back waistband.  It has a narrow front panel with the sides of the full skirt pleated from the side of the panel around the back where it is tied on with a large bow.  The sides and neckline of the bid are decorated with inserted lace.  The shoulder sleeve caps are made of a cotton eyelet edged fabric