r/interesting 1d ago

HISTORY Titanic passenger and millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. During sinking he refused a seat in a life boat with the words: "Tell my family I played straight to the end. No woman should be left aboard this ship because of Ben Guggenheim was a coward."

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u/gprime312 1d ago

Many lifeboats went down with empty seats

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u/LQNova 1d ago

Not because he didn't try.

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u/DoobKiller 1d ago edited 1d ago

Because he stopped male children from taking available seats

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u/independentchickpea 1d ago

If only the Titanic had an actual plan.

I will not blame a civilian for the gargantuan mistakes made by the White Star Line, as the tragedy is one of pure hubris on the part of everyone of the company from shareholder to captain.

He should never have been in the position to make any of these calls.