Benjamin Guggenheim - Going Out Like A Gentleman And The Magnificent Bastard That He Was

 

 

Benjamin Guggenheim was a passenger on the Titanic and on the fateful day it sank, Guggenheim realized he wanted to go to Valhalla looking sharp.

As the boat was sinking, Guggenheim and his valet, Victor Giglio, immediately set about helping as many women and children as they could into lifeboats. However, after around an hour, the boat crew noticed that they were missing. Several minutes later, Benjamin and Giglio emerged on deck without their life preservers. Instead, they were now wearing their finest evening wear. When asked why they had changed, Guggenheim simply responded that he wanted to go down like a gentleman and asked for someone to get a message to his wife.

You may remember Guggenheim from the Titanic movie—he’s the one who sips brandy on the deck as it slowly sinks into oblivion. Well, believe it or not, Guggenheim actually did that. Except the real Guggenheim was even more awesome than his fictional counterpart, who simply asks for the brandy and walks away without actually helping anyone. In real life, he saved dozens of lives first.

That’s the image we want to leave you with, a guy dressed to the nines sitting on a deck chair with a brandy in hand as the entire world collapses around him, completely content that he was going to die like a gentlemen should.

http://listverse.com/2013/09/18/10-awesome-ways-people-stared-down-death-through-history/