Léontine Pauline "Ninette" Aubart[1] was the mistress of millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. They were First Class passengers of the Titanic. She was often called 'Ninette'. She survived the sinking, but Benjamin died. She was the daughter of Sylvain Jacques Augustin Aubart and Marie Elisabeth Aubart (Caze').
In her twenties, she was a singer, probaly in a nightclub, she lived at 17 Rue Le Sueur, Paris, France. She boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg with her maid Emma Sägesser. She occupied cabin B-35 (ticket number PC 17477, £69 6s).
After the Iceberg collision, Léontine Aubart went to see what was happening, seemingly unconcerned, she went back to bed, only to get up again a little later and along with her maid went to meet Benjamin Guggenheim, before going up on deck.
She and her maid were rescued, probably in lifeboat 9. After coming aboard the Carpathia, she sent a Marconigram to Paris on April 18th, 1912:
Aubart 42 rue Monge Paris
Moi sauvee mais Ben perdu[2]
Some other Telegrams were not transmitted because the operators could not cope with the tremendous workload following the disaster.
Aubart 42 rue Monge Paris
Sauvée[3]
Ninette Aubart
Berthe Segesser 30, Charles Baudelaire Paris
Sauvée Amities Emma[5]
Léontine placed a claim for her lost belongings. She said:
Léontine Aubart
"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."
No matter what her real feelings were for Benjamin, she had just undergone an extremely harrowing ordeal. She mentioned she was exposed to the elements improperly and scantily clad and was thereby caused serious and permanent personal injuries ... was made sick, sore, lame, and disabled by reason of such exposure ... (that she) suffered and still suffers great mental pain and anguish and distress ... (and that she was) impaired in her senses and faculties'. Delivering her coup de grace, she also contends that 'her health and constitution are shattered' and that 'her nervous system is permanently affected'. Léontine might well have exaggerated her condition to gain maximum compensation but her maid, Emma Sagesser, certainly had to support her young mistress, who apparently suffered a near-complete breakdown once aboard the 'Carpathia'.
She didn't know any English and after being through something like a ship sinking Léontine might have been scared. Benjamin, her provider was dead and what ever dreams she had were dead with him. How was she going to get money to go back to France? Did she even want to go back to France or did she have to back because she didn't know English or had no money. When the time came for her to sail back to France aboard the 'Adriatic' in early May, she was so flustered and upset that she left both her steamer and train tickets behind her in New York.
In later life, it is said, that Madame Aubart held parties during the 1920s that were ended by police.
Leontine Pauline Aubart died on October 29th, 1964; aged 77.
