Emma Schabert

Mrs Paul Schabert (Emma Mock) was born in Manhattan, New York on 23 May 1876.

The daughter of German immigrants, her parents were Richard Mock (b. 22 June 1845 in Baden; d. 6 January 1905), a restaurateur, and Eva Maria “Emma” Lampert (b. 20 May 1841 in Hesse; d. 26 June 1913) who were married in Hamburg in 1871. 

She had three brothers: Richard (b. 14 June 1872), Richard (b. 25 March 1878) and Philipp Edmund (b. 1881), as well as a half-brother, Henry Cook (b. circa 1864)¹.

Her father Richard, a former student in Heidelberg, reportedly left Germany abruptly and settled in the USA in his early 20s. Although of good education he encountered difficulty obtaining work and began his career in New York as a bartender. Before long before he branched out for himself in the restaurant business. His first place was at 8th Avenue and 46th Street. He opened a successful restaurant at 145 West 42nd Street－"Mock Hotel"－around 1895 that was said to be popular with “theatrical types” and a hotspot for celebrities at the time. 

In March 1906 the Mock Hotel was the scene of the macabre death of actor and playwright Louis De Lange (1856-1913), whose throat was slit “from ear to ear”; although there was much evidence pointing to a robbery and homicide and a suspect was detained, a murder case was never fully established and authorities at the time painted the alarming death as a suicide.

The 1880 census shows the Mock family living on 46th Street, Manhattan. The young Emma was sent to her parents’ homeland of Germany for schooling in Hamburg. At age 16, the attractive young lady caught the eye of a wealthy exporter and army officer of Hamburg nobility, Captain Paul Schabert (b. 8 March 1867). Despite a gap of almost a decade in age, Schabert lavished Miss Mock with much attention. However, with her schooling finished Emma returned to her family in New York, soon forgetting the champion for her affections.

Back in New York, a sensation ensued when Emma, who was then in her early twenties, was courted by a man nearly forty years her senior. Rufus Warren Blake² (b. 3 May 1841) of Derby, Connecticut, a millionaire widower and piano manufacturer of Sterling Piano Company, pursued the young woman, winning her hand in marriage, which took place on 1 February 1900. 

The couple made their home in Derby and had one daughter named Harriet (b. 1901), who died as a young infant. 

An automobile enthusiast, Emma reportedly owned the second-largest automobile in the USA. She often made the trip from Derby to New York in her vehicle and delighted in motoring at a whirlwind pace. Her chauffeur was arrested in New York for speeding in late 1902.

In October 1901, Mr Blake was examining a newly-purchased revolver when the firearm accidentally discharged. Upon later examination, it was found that the revolver contained just one bullet which, by fateful chance, just happened to be under the hammer at the time. 

Emma’s younger brother Philipp, who at the time lived with her and her husband and who worked at Sterling Pianos, had purchased the firearm just one week before:

Rufus Warren Blake lingered until his death on 26 October 1901. Although mortally wounded, Blake steadfastly declared that the shooting was accidental, yet there persisted the possibility that it was a botched suicide attempt as Mr Blake had reportedly been in a state of steadily declining health. His young brother-in-law Philipp Mock was then elected secretary of Sterling Pianos, in conjunction with Mrs Blake. 

Emma, at age 25, became a very wealthy widow, with her fortune estimated at as much as $3,000,000, her late husband having bequeathed to her almost the entirety of his large estate. His first wife had repeatedly begged him to make a will, which he neglected to do, leaving her family entirely cut off from his fortune following a fresh will drawn up shortly before his death. £96,000 of his estate was set aside for his sisters and a niece.

Shortly after this loss, the young widow Emma took herself off to Europe to help deal with her grief. It was while there that she again, by chance, crossed paths with that of her first noted admirer, Paul Schabert. The dormant romance and friendship was rekindled and when widow Emma returned to the USA, Paul Schabert was not far behind in joining her there. Soon thereafter, an engagement was announced and they were married in the Hotel Manhattan on 26 January 1903. They honeymooned in Japan and China where Schabert had sizeable business interests, notably in the export of camphor.

Frequent travellers, the couple split their lives between Germany, New York and Connecticut; they welcomed two children, Beatrice (b. 19 December 1905) and Kyrill Sidney (b. 6 February 1909), both born in Germany. They were listed on the 1910 US census as residents of Elizabeth Street in Derby, Connecticut.

By 1912 the marriage between Emma and Paul was in dire straits; according to the Los Angeles Daily Times (26 April 1912), Schabert had left his wife behind in Germany and had travelled to Reno, Nevada with the purpose of filing a suit for divorce, hoping to benefit from that state’s lenient divorce laws.

Perhaps with the intention of joining her husband to discuss the terms of a divorce, Emma boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg and was travelling with her younger brother Philipp on ticket number 13236 which cost £57, 15s.  Their cabin location is unknown.

In a widely syndicated piece, Mrs Schabert was told to have said:

The same syndicated interview stated that Mrs Schabert was acquainted with Mr and Mrs Strauss and conversed with them during the evacuation, later witnessing the old couple sink beneath the waves arm in arm after refusing to be parted. Philipp Mock later denounced the “interview,” in particular any notion that they knew or had any contact with the Strauss couple. 

What is apparent though is that brother and sister elected to remain together and Emma refused several invites into some of the earlier starboard boats. With the forward starboard boats depleted they moved aft and watched the launch of lifeboat 9. On the advice of crewmen, the pair descended to A-deck where the other aft-starboard boats were to be filled. Mock saw his sister Emma into boat 11 and assisted some other ladies into the craft, including Edith Rosenbaum. As the boat was lowering Philipp stepped off the rail and into the boat, one of the most heavily laden to be launched.

Upon learning of the Titanic disaster and seeing his wife’s name among the passenger lists published, Schabert became very concerned as to the fate of Emma, hastening to New York to greet the Carpathia. According to the Los Angeles Daily Times (26 April 1912), when the couple were reunited they had a touching reconciliation and Schabert shelved his plans for a divorce. 

The reconciliation proved to be brief and the Schaberts were divorced within the year. Paul returned to Germany and died there on 8 August 1926. 

Emma also returned to Germany and was first remarried in June 1913, again to an older man, Walter Wilhelm von Plötz (1858-1927), about whom little is known, but she was widowed in 1927. She remarried in April 1928 to Karl Wilhelm Edmund Kurt von Faber du Faur－better known as Curt－an academic, bibliophile, writer and antiquarian from Stuttgart (b. 5 July 1890).

Emma and Curt made their home in Italy for a number of years but, with the outbreak of WWII, they hastened from Europe to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Curt spent five years as a visiting lecturer at Harvard before going to Yale as a research professor until retiring in 1959. He later became curator of Yale Library up until his death. The 1950 census shows the couple as residents of 334 Edwards Street in New Haven, Connecticut. 

In her later years Emma reportedly never cared to discuss her experiences on the Titanic.

She died in New Haven following a stroke on 18 April 1961 and was buried in St James’ Episcopal Church graveyard in Long Island, New York. Her widower Curt died 10 January 1966 and they are interred together. 

Her daughter Beatrice³ died in Italy in January 1984.

Son Kyrill Schabert was a graduate of Munich University, became a founder of Pantheon Books and was mayor of Nissequogue, New York from 1951 to 1959; he was twice married, first in 1937 to Mary Babcock Smith (1905-1949), who died suddenly, and again in 1951 to Martha Loewenstein, née Gutlohn (1910-1997). He had three children from his first marriage, Peter, Kyrill and Deborah, as well as two stepsons from his second marriage, Michael and John. He died in New York on 7 April 1983.