Thread by @TODreamsProject

1. In 1987, a Russian submarine travelled to the bottom of the Atlantic. Its mission: to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, looking for artifacts they could bring back to the surface.

2. And all the way down there, on the bottom of the ocean floor, not far from where the hulk of the Titanic rests in the sand, they found a leather wallet.

3. The crew brought it back to the surface. It was remarkably well-preserved: the tannins used to treat the leather kept it protected from the water.

4. So they opened it. And there, safely tucked away inside, still intact after all these years, they discovered…

5. Twelve tickets for the Toronto streetcar.

6. The tickets belonged to Arthur Peuchen: a Toronto entrepreneur and a major in the Queen’s Own Rifles. His season’s pass for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club was in there too, along with some traveller's cheques and business cards.

7. He lived on Jarvis Street, north far south of Bloor — in a house that has since been demolished — and had a country home on Lake Simcoe. With plenty of business interests in Europe, he’d already crossed the Atlantic 40 times — once in his own yacht. By now, it was old hat.

8. He was in his cabin getting undressed for bed when it hit. At first, he thought it was just a big wave, but when he ventured outside to investigate, he found the deck littered with ice carved off the iceberg as it scraped its way along the side of the ship.

9. He was sure it was nothing serious. The Titanic, after all, was unsinkable. But as one of the lifeboats was being lowered, the crew member on board called out for another seaworthy man to join him — he was afraid he couldn’t manage the boat alone. Peuchen stepped forward.

10. He had to make a daring leap into the lowering boat, but made it safely. And here's that same lifeboat getting rescued the next morning. Thanks to that jump, Major Peuchen had survived the sinking… and would be publicly reviled for the rest of his days.

11. Upon his return, Peuchen was ostracized from Toronto society. Men weren’t supposed to have survived the Titanic. His business suffered—over & over again, even though eye witnesses defended him, he was accused of having dressed in disguise as a woman to escape the sinking ship

12. He finally died in 1929, just after the stock market crashed, and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. You can still find his grave there today.

13. I plan to write more about him someday—a fascinating fellow. But for now, I’ve written a post about *all* the Canadians on the Titanic: some of the most powerful people in our country died that night.

You can check it out here via @thisiscanadiana: thisiscanadiana.com/blogposts/2019…