Titanic is a name that is known throughout the world and the loss of Titanic had effects which reverberated all around the world in 1912. No one in Belfast in 1912 could possibly have known what the loss of Titanic would eventually mean six thousand miles away on the other side of the world.

Let me take you back to the year 1906. Belfast is an industrial powerhouse - a developed city which has benefited from the industrial revolution. It has the biggest ropeworks, tobacco company, tea machinery, and shipyard in the world and the workers at Harland & Wolff are just about to embark on the building of the biggest ships that man has ever envisaged. The City Hall in Belfast has just been completed.

Across the Atlantic Ocean is New York, another rapidly growing city which in the near future will wait to welcome these huge ocean liners. But if we cross to the other side of the American continent we find explorers and empire builders travelling through land that is still a wilderness.

Our story begins here, on the northern shores of the province of British Columbia in Canada - just 40 miles from the Alaskan panhandle - a strip of land that juts down from Alaska. It was a place inhabited only by Native Indian tribes with strange sounding names like those of the Tsimpsian tribe who spoke only Smalgyx and lived in small isolated communities.

On the morning of May 17 1906 a little steamer left the Indian village of Metlakatla on the northern coast of British Columbia and entered a huge natural harbour known as Tuck's Inlet. The steamer approached the eastern shore which was formed by Kaien  Island  and  the  first  working party for a proposed city landed.

The shores were steep and heavily wooded and the two carpenters, Messrs. Legatt and Edgecombe, with their Chinese cook, had a hard time scrambling up the rocks and getting their supplies ashore. Rain fell heavily, the bush was thick and wet, and the ground was incredibly soggy. What a start for a proposed city of at least 50,000 people!

Yet this was the practical beginning of the dream of the general manager of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway - Charles Melville Hays. His dream was to have a coastal terminus for his transcontinental railway - a terminus that would rival Vancouver and steal its oriental trade. Hays envisaged a city of 50,000 people and he had already dispatched 60 tons of steel by steamer to begin the building of the necessary railroad.

The first working party was not daunted by their tremendous task. They rapidly cleared a space for a tool shed and tents and then started the construction of a wharf. A pile-driver was brought by steamer - the only way any person or equipment could reach this forsaken spot in the middle of the wilderness. Engineers cleared a right of way through the heavily wooded area and laid out the first street straight up the hillside from the dock site. They called it Centre Street. By July 1^st the wharf was finished and buildings were begun. The first building was finished in August and served as an office and sleeping quarters for the engineers. A boarding- house for the engineers was the next building to be built - safe sleeping quarters were essential as this was an area of wilderness heavily populated by bears.

Early pictures of the town-site show it as heavily wooded from the shoreline right back to the foot of the mountain which the first residents named as Mount Hays. All this land had to be cleared before the lots could be laid out and the work was let out in blocks to individual contractors.

At the same time that Lord Pirrie and Bruce Ismay were having dinner in Downshire House, Pirrie's opulent London home and planning the building of the world's biggest ships, men six thousand miles away were living in tents and planning the building of their city. Clearing was started in the winter of 1907 and the contract price was $120 per acre (about £50). In the meantime the railway had been clearing the waterfront and a sawmill was erected to cut the logs from the felled trees into lumber for the first buildings.

One year's activity had made only a small impression on the surrounding wilderness, but already settlers were clamouring for land, and a community of 150 people had secured a foothold. Inhabitants were mostly labourers but a few essential businesses had been permitted to establish themselves even though the general public was not supposed to be able to stay. Housed in tents and temporary buildings, the favoured businesses carried on a lively trade. Clearing and surveying proceeded steadily through 1908 and in May 1909 city lots were offered for sale. The population had reached one thousand with one hundred and fifty businesses and bidding for the lots was enthusiastic. Prices got out of hand and the resultant boom saw figures as high as six thousand dollars for single lots. Prince Rupert was going to be a boom town!

It was now possible to erect permanent buildings and the old flimsy structures disappeared. Many were removed by the blasting along the waterfront in preparation for the railroad yards.

Meanwhile back in Belfast the keels of both Olympic and Titanic had been laid and the building of these super sea-going vessels was being carried by the workforce of Harland & Wolff - a workforce five times bigger than the population of the proposed new city of Prince Rupert.

The new city mushroomed overnight. In the Prince Rupert 'Optimist' of September 1909 the following appeared:

'Three months ago Prince Rupert was only a map. There were sidewalks, stumps and surveyors' stakes. The town-site actually had something less than nature had put on it; even the ravens could scarcely find a roosting place within it. Today it has blocks of stores, roadways, sewers, waterworks and construction, and houses scattered over a radius of two miles. It is a hive of industry - every day there is something added to the landscape. Today the population is 3000 and the building is spreading over the town-site in a wonderful manner. We now have a newspaper and job office, one butcher shop and two drug stores, 25 real estate agencies, four grocery stores, two laundries, one millinery parlour, 14 restaurants, two hardware stores, two furniture stores, one theatre, one fancy goods stores, one clothing store, one bakery, three barristers, three barbers, two coal merchants and three lumberyards.

Prince Rupert was still a company town, but the citizens set up committees to get on with the problem of city organisation. A Bill of Incorporation was introduced in the Legislature in the capital, Victoria, and finally received approval on March 10^th 1910. City Elections followed and Prince Rupert had its first mayor and city council. The council's first tasks were to organise the supply of electric light for the city and to ensure an efficient water supply. Water had originally come from a dam on Hays Creek but the rapidly growing population was placing demands which Hays Creek could not meet. A Fire Department was set up and in 1911 -- the year that saw the launch of Titanic - a fire hall was built and the best fire-fighting equipment was purchased. A motor-driven vehicle was ordered and so modern was this that it was exhibited in Toronto before being transported to what the Toronto newspapers referred to as "the new western city of Prince Rupert." It arrived on April 20^th 1911.

Everyone in Prince Rupert was imbued with a sense of destiny as the year 1912 dawned. Everyone was determined to make Prince Rupert the foremost city of the west. The city was growing rapidly and twin strands of steel were slowly, but steadily, threading their way up the Skeena Valley. A bridge to link Kaien Island to the mainland had been built. The railroad company owned seven million dollars of real estate within the city limits and they deeded certain parklands to the city. In addition they agreed to commence erection of a permanent station, round house, engine works and a large modern hotel. They also planned to build a large dry dock and shipyards.

It never happened.

                   It never happened because the Titanic sank.

Charles Melville Hays was born on 16^th May 1856 in Illinois in the USA. At the age of 17 he entered the passenger department of the Atlantic and Pacific Railway at St. Louis. His railway career advanced rapidly and in 1889 he became general manager of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad. He came to Canada in 1896 as the general manager of the Grand Trunk Railway on the recommendation of financier J. P. Morgan. Ironically, Morgan's International Mercantile Marie Company later controlled White Star, owners of the Titanic. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, of which he became president in 1905, was largely Hays' creation. He had legendary enthusiasm and no detail escaped his critical eye. He hired many Americans and imposed a faster, more informal style. Always 1^st into the office, he was a tireless manager, listening to everyone from colleagues to engine drivers. Hays recognised the need for a Grand Trunk transcontinental railway due to the tremendous growth in western Canada and he enlisted government support for his Pacific railway.

In 1911 Charles Hays was described by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, leader of the Canadian Liberal government, at a dinner of the Canadian Club of New York in the Hotel Astor, as "beyond question the greatest railroad genius in Canada, as an executive genius racking second only to the late Edward H. Harriman."

Hays saw more to railways than just trains - he envisaged grand hotels and railway stations at key points along the line - culminating in a great western city in Prince Rupert.

As Grand Trunk was financed by British capital, Hays often travelled overseas for meetings. On one such trip in the spring of 1912 he sailed to Britain with his wife Clara, daughter Orian aged 28 and son-in-law Thornton Davidson. Davidson was a 32 year-old stockbroker and former hockey player with the Montreal Victoria's who was being groomed for an executive position with Grand Trunk. With the party were Mrs. Hays' maid, Miss Anne Perreault, and Vivian Payne, Hays' 23 year old private male secretary.

In business dealings Hays had had discussions with the White Star line about speeding travellers from Europe to the Orient using White Star ships and his transcontinental railroad. As a result J.Bruce Ismay invited Hays and his entourage as guests aboard Titanic. Travelling with him would also be the famous sculptor Paul Romaine Chevre. The timing suited Hays well - he wanted to be back in Canada's capital, Ottawa, for the opening of his Grand Trunk flagship hotel, Chateau Laurier (in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier) on April 26^th and because the 3^rd of his four daughters was having a difficult pregnancy. The Hays party was booked into four 1^st class cabins on the Promenade Deck. They paid £93.10shs to cover any incidental expenses as they were guests of Ismay and travelled on ticket number 12749. Mr. & Mrs. Hays were in cabin B69, their daughter and son-in-law in B.71, their maid in B73 and secretary in B.24.

Hays and company enjoyed the sumptuous food and magnificent appointments of the new vessel. At about 10 o'clock on the evening of April 14^th Hays was relaxing in the Gentlemen's Smoking Lounge with Colonel Archibald Gracie and Captain Edward Crosby. They talked about the technological advances in transportation. Hays conceded that Titanic was a superlative vessel but he was concerned. 'The White Star, the Cunard and the Hamburg-American lines are devoting their attention and ingenuity in vying with one another to attain the supremacy in luxurious ships and in making speed records,' said Hays at one point in the conversation. "The trend to playing fast and loose with larger and larger ships will end in tragedy". Twenty minutes later Titanic struck an iceberg. Hays and Davidson went for their wives, put fur coats around them, and escorted them to lifeboat number 3. "Goodbye -- this ship is good for ten hours," Hays assured his wife. Jay Henry Mowbray in his 1912 book, 'The sinking of the Titanic' describes the last time anyone saw Charles Hays in the early hours of April 15^th 1912:

"Major Arthur Puechan, a wealthy resident of Toronto, Canada, was the last man on the Titanic to say goodbye to Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, who lost his life. After assisting members of the crew in filling up the first five boats, Major Puechan, who is an experienced yachtsman, was assigned by the 2^nd mate to take charge of boat number 6. Major Puechan said he declined to accept such a post, not desiring to have any preference over any of his fellow passengers. Captain Smith, wishing an experienced boatsman on boat number 6, directed the 2^nd officer to give the major a written order to take charge of it. Major Puechan displayed this order to some of his friends so as to make it plain that it was at the demand of the ship's officers that he undertook the assignment. Just as the Major was about to leave in the lifeboat, his old friend, Charles M Hays, of the Grand Trunk, came up and said goodbye. Mr. Hays had no idea, according to Major Puechan, that the ship would sink as soon as it did, but believed that help would be at hand sufficient to care for all before the vessel went down. Mr. Hays remarked to the Major that the ship could not possibly sink within eight hours, and that long before then everybody would be taken off safely. Mr Hays expressed no fear that he would be lost by remaining on board the ship."

The ship Minia recovered the body of Charles Melville Hays on April 26^th and he is registered as body number 307. "It was no trouble to identify him as he had a lot of papers on him and a watch with his name on it," sailor Francis Dyke wrote to his mother. The Grand Trunk Railway sent a special train for its President and his coffin was carried back to Montreal aboard his private railway car, Canada. The car is still preserved and on display at the Canadian Railway Museum near Delson, Quebec.

Simultaneous funerals for Hays were held on May 8^th at the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal and at the Church of St. Edmund King and Martyr in London. According to the newspapers work stopped in thousands of miles of sidings and stations and for five minutes thousands of individuals bowed their heads as the Grand Trunk Railway system paid its respects to the memory of its great departed chief. His body is interred at Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery and his tombstone reads

'We are a different people, we are a better people, because this man worked and loved and died.'

No damages were claimed by the Hays estate against White Star. The remaining family members followed suit, unlike many other 1^st class passengers. Mrs. Hays was reported to have said, "When one is a guest, one does not sue one 's host."

Charles Melville Hays died one month before his 56^th birthday. He was at the pinnacle of his career and a pillar of Montreal society. He had been offered a British knighthood in 1910 for his contribution to Canadian railway development but declined the honour as the acceptance would have meant the forfeiture of his American citizenship.

Charles Melville Hays perished on the Titanic and with him went all the plans for the future development of the port of Prince Rupert. Strange to say, all these plans were carried in the President's head and had never been committed to paper. None of the projects Hays had planned for Prince Rupert ever materialised and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway soon foundered as well, cancelling the branch line to Vancouver. Hays great railway dream was placed into receivership in 1919 though his flagship 450 room hotel continues to be Ottawa's hotel par excellence and shows what might have been. The future of Prince Rupert as a great city perished with Charles Melville Hays on the Titanic in April 1912.

Prince Rupert never achieved greatness and never had more than 20,000 inhabitants - it never rivalled Vancouver, even though it has the 3^rd largest natural harbour in the world. It never got its shipyard and it remained a fishing port and a stopping off point for cruise ships on their way to Alaska. In the last few years the decline of Prince Rupert has accelerated with the closure of the nearby pulp mill. The population is now closer to 10,000. Despite all this Charles M Hays is remembered all over Prince Rupert today.

       ... There is Hays Mountain that rises above the valley where the golf course is.

         ... There is Hays Cove - the inlet where Charles    Hays    first landed -- and a street called Hays Cove Circle.

         ... In the year that commemorated the 80^th  anniversary of the loss of Titanic, 1992, a new secondary school was opened in Prince Rupert - it is called Charles Hays Secondary School.

And in the middle of that 1st street, Centre Street, outside Prince Rupert's City Hall, stands a statue of the railroad genius and visionary who once planned greatness for this city and who sadly perished on Titanic.

I once spent four years living in this city but at the time the name of Hays meant nothing to me. It was before I had any interest in Titanic and so I never even knew that all the places that had the name of Hays had a connection with the city of my birth. Only in the last ten years when my Titanic interest had grown did I realise just whom all these places had been named in memory of. Two years ago I returned there on holiday and this time I made sure to go and pay my respects to the statue of Charles Melville Hays - the man who took the dreams and hopes of thousands of people down with him on Titanic.