Tell my wife I played the game straight out and to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim is a coward.
― Benjamin Guggenheim
We've dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.
― Benjamin Guggenheim before going down with the Titanic along with his valet, Victor Giglio
Benjamin "Ben" Guggenheim (October 26th, 1865 – April 15th, 1912) was an American millionaire businessman. He died aboard RMS Titanic when the ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean and his body was never recovered.
Titanic[]
Guggenheim and his mistress Léontine Aubart, her maid Emma Sägesser, his valet Victor Giglio and his chauffer Rene Pernot all boarded the Titanic in Liverpool, England, bound for New York City. On April 14th, 1912, it hit an iceberg and started sinking. Guggenheim and Giglio were summoned by their first class bedroom steward, Henry Samuel Etches, to get out of bed and put on warm clothes and lifebelts, something Guggenheim was assisted in by Etches. While on the deck, Guggenheim helped Sägesser and Aubart to get into a lifeboat. Sägesser later quoted Guggenheim as saying "We will soon see each other again! It's just a repair. Tomorrow the Titanic will go on again.". Realizing that he probably would not escape, Guggenheim assisted in the evacuation of women and children from the sinking ship and then went back to his cabin, where he and Giglio changed into fancy evening wear and went to the bar, where they both went down with the ship. His chauffer, who was traveling in second class also died in the sinking.