Thread by @twitandrewking

ON THIS DATE

April 11th, 1912 Titanic set sail on a maiden voyage across the Atlantic, never reaching New York.

Ottawa has a very strong connection to this ill-fated ship that you can visit. This quiet connection rests on a pedestal in the lobby of the Chateau Laurier Hotel...

Sitting atop a wooden pedestal in the Chateau Laurier is a stone carving of the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, who was Prime Minister of the time the Chateau was built in 1911, and whose name adorns the hotel. Now, just to back it up a bit...

Built at cost of $2million in 1911, the grand opening of the opulent hotel was planned for April 26th 1912 with owner Charles Hays and Laurier to be in attendance. To complete the grand hotel before its opening, Hays travelled to London, England.

Hays boarded Titanic to return.

Hays paid a small fee to travel aboard Titanic in a deluxe suite (cabin B69) on the Promenade Deck.

Another passenger, French sculptor Paul Chevre, of whom Hays had commissioned to do a bust of Canadian prime minister Sir Laurier for the lobby of his Château Laurier Hotel.

He got on Titanic in Cherbourg, France as a first class passenger (ticket number PC 17594, Cabin A-9) and played cards with some other French passengers as they crossed the Atlantic.

After the ship hit the iceberg, a lot of commotion took place & despite was thought to be a minor incident, Chèvre pocketed his playing cards, boarded one of the first lifeboats to be lowered, and escaped the fate that befell Hays and the other 1500 passengers that night.

The bust of Laurier he carved was safe on another ship, and it was later placed on pedestal in the lobby of the hotel, where it still stands today.

Chèvre apparently never recovered from the trauma of what happened, and he died within two years of the sinking.