By Paul Miller
Here is part of an insurance claim made by Mme. Léontine Pauline Aubart, a first-class passenger aboard RMS Titanic.
Throughout her twenties, Mme. Aubart was a nightclub singer, living at 17 Rue Le Sueur, Paris. She boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg with her maid Emma Sägesser, occupying cabin B-35.
Aubart was the mistress of millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, who was also travelling on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. After the collision, she and her maid entered Lifeboat No. 9. As they clambered aboard, Guggenheim spoke to Mme. Sägesser in German, saying: “We will soon see each other again! It’s just a repair. Tomorrow the Titanic will go on again.”
Realising that the situation was much more serious, and that he was not going to be rescued, Guggenheim returned to his cabin with his secretary, Vincent Giglio, where the two men changed into evening wear. Survivor Rose Amelie Icard wrote: “The millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim after having helped the rescue of women and children, got dressed and put a rose at his buttonhole, to die.” He was heard to remark, “We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.”
Léontine and her maid boarded the rescue ship, the Carpathia, from where she sent a Marconigram to Paris: “Aubart 42 rue Monge Paris. Moi sauvee mais Ben perdu”
She later wrote, as part of her claim: “I had in my cabin jewels worth £4,000 as well as many trunks of dresses and hats. Nothing could be taken with me. We were in our night clothes. Lifebelts were put around us. On the deck there was no commotion. Every one of them a perfect gentleman – calmly puffing cigarettes and cigars and watching the women and children being placed in the boats. Marie got into the lifeboat and then I. We were the last women to leave the ship. Those Englishmen, still with cigarettes in mouth, facing the death so bravely that it was all the more terrible.”
Mme. Aubart’s case against the White Star Line for reimbursement of her lost possessions was supplemented by a personal injury claim of $25,000. However, all cases against the company were settled for a combined amount of $644,000.
Léontine Pauline Aubart – THE MISTRESS
“I had in my cabin jewels worth 4,000 (GPB) as well as many trunks of dresses and hats. Nothing could be taken with me. We were in our night clothes. Lifebelts were put around us. On the deck there was no commotion. Every one of them a perfect gentleman – calmly puffing cigarettes and cigars and watching the women and children being placed in the boats. Marie got into the lifeboat and then I. We were the last women to leave the ship. Those Englishmen, still with cigarettes in mouth, facing the death so bravely that it was all the more terrible.”
Emma Sägesser – THE MAID
At the beginning of 1912 she worked as a maid for the young singer Leontine Pauline “Ninette” Aubart in Paris. She would accompany her employer on the Titanic. Therefore she travelled on Mme. Aubert’s first-class ticket number PC 17477, price £69 6s; the ticket paid for by Benjamin Guggenheim, Madame Aubart’s lover. Officially she and her maid travelled alone.
Benjamin Guggenheim THE SUGAR DADDY
Guggenheim returned to his room and changed into his finest evening wear, his valet, Mr Giglio did likewise. He was later heard to remark ‘We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.’
