Philipp Mock

Philipp Edmund Mock (born August 16, 1881 in New York, New York; died June 16, 1951 in Daytona Beach, Florida) was an artist, solder, banker, and survivor of the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic.

Mock was born to Richard and Emma Mock, both immigrants to the United States from Germany. He studied art in Europe and attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He worked as a miniaturist and served in the Spanish American War.

After the war Mock moved to Derby, Connecticut and took a job with the Sterling Piano Company, owned by his sister Emma's much-older husband, Rufus W. Blake. Blake died in 1901, possibly a suicide motivated by the torment of chronic nephritis (Bright's disease), and Emma's inheritance was $1,500,000. She remarried, to Captain Paul Schabert, years later and the couple kept residences in New York and Hamburg.

Philipp, meanwhile, had married Emma Clark of Derby, Connecticut around 1910. He was a frequent traveler to Europe and in 1912 he accompanied his sister, whose marriage to Schabert was failing, back to the United States. The sibling booked first-class cabins on the maiden voyage of the Titanic and were very impressed with the size and grandeur of the vessel.

When the ship wrecked on icebergs in the North Atlantic, Emma was invited onto the first lifeboats to be lowered, but declined to be separated from Philipp, whom she called "Boy". They made their way together past several other rapidly-filling boats, and eventually found space for her on lifeboat 11, which was moored at a lower deck. Philipp Mock remained on deck to help women climb the railing. He was credited with having saved Emma Rosenbaum's life, as well as the lives of several children who were brought onto that lifeboat. As the boat was about to be lowered, he considered the prospect of making the 60-foot dive into the sea. Those already aboard insisted that he join them, much to Emma's relief. Mock took charge of an oar to help propel the small boat away from the sinking cruiser and, hours later, into the path of the 'R.M.S. Carpathia which brought the survivors on board.

Like his sister, Mock's marriage did not long survive. After his divorce he married Alvis Ehrman of Clanton in late 1914. He continued to keep his position with the Sterling Piano Company for a while, but later moved to New York where he engaged in a career in banking. The couple, who were childless, moved to Florida in 1935. Within a few years Mock began working as an art instructor at "The Casements", the former Ormond Beach mansion owned by John D. Rockefeller which had been converted into a girls' school after his death in 1937.

Mock died in June 1951 in a Daytona Beach hospital. His remains were cremated. After his death, his widow, Alvis, returned to Birmingham. After her death in 1963 Mock's ashes were interred with her in the Ehrman's family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery.

References

• Poirier, Michael (April 2016) "Siblings’ love survives fateful night". Voyage, No. 74
• "Philipp Edmund Mock" (2016) Encyclopedia Titanica - accessed September 23, 2016
• "Titanic Lifeboat 11" (2016) Encyclopedia Titanica - accessed September 23, 2016