Thread by @TODreamsProject

1. Decades after the sinking of the Titanic, a Soviet submarine descended to the ocean floor to explore the wreck.

It found something surprising down there: 12 tickets for the Toronto streetcar.

Here's the story of how they got there…

2. Meet Major Arthur Peuchen: a Toronto entrepreneur.

He did lots of business in Europe, so he was used to crossing the Atlantic. He'd done it 40 times; once on his own yacht.

And in 1912, he decided to head home from a meeting in London by booking a trip on the Titanic.

3. As the doomed ship set out on its maiden voyage, Major Peuchen was far from the only Canadian on board.

There were at least 34 in total, including some of the most famous names in the country. Many of them knew each other; some were good friends.

4. Every night, Major Peuchen would head to the Titanic's lavish dining room for dinner with Harry Molson — heir to the famous brewing fortune & former mayor of Dorval.

5. They were joined by the Allisons, one of the richest families on board — which is really saying something on a ship full of Astors & Guggenheims.

Hudson Allison had made a fortune on the Montreal stock market, one of the Quebec's most successful brokers.

6. And after dinner on that final night, Peuchen headed to the Smoking Lounge to hang out with a couple of Winnipeggers on their way home from a cruise down the Nile.

Thomson Beattie & Thomas McCaffry were inseparable and shared a cabin; many believe they were deeply in love.

7. They weren't even supposed to be on the Titanic.

They'd cut their trip short when their BFF — John Hugo Ross; people called them "The Three Musketeers" — came down with a terrible case of dysentery in Egypt.

8. While the sick Ross suffered in bed down below, Major Peuchen stayed up late with the other two Winnipeg musketeers, smoking and chatting until about 11:30pm.

9. Ten minutes later, the major was back in his cabin getting undressed for bed. That’s when the ship hit the iceberg.

(It's believed to be this exact iceberg, spotted just hours later with a streak of red paint along its side.)

10. "I felt as though a heavy wave had struck our ship," Peuchen later remembered.

"She quivered under it somewhat... but knowing that it was a calm night and that it was an unusual thing to occur on a calm night, I immediately put on my overcoat and went up on deck.”

11. When Peuchen ventured outside to investigate, he found the deck littered with ice — chunks carved off the iceberg.

He was sure it was nothing serious. The Titanic, after all, was unsinkable.

And he was quickly reassured by one of the most powerful Canadians on board...

12. Charles Melville Hays was president of the Grand Trunk Railway & governor of McGill University.

He was rushing back to Canada to attend the grand opening of his brand new hotel: the Château Laurier in Ottawa.

13. Hays had been personally invited to take the Titanic by its owner, but the railroad tycoon wasn’t entirely impressed by ocean liners.

Just an hour earlier, he'd made a troubling prediction: “The time will come soon when this trend will be checked by some appalling disaster.”

14. But now, as Peuchen showed him the ice scattered across the deck & the great ship began to list to one side, Hays wasn’t worried.

"You can't sink this boat," he explained. "No matter what we've struck, she is good for 8 or 10 hours.”

Two hours later, Hays would be dead.

15. He was far from the only Canadian to die that night.

The sinking of the Titanic claimed more than 1,500 lives, including 20 Canadians — more than half of those who had been on board.

16. Harry Molson was last seen taking his shoes off, claiming he could see the lights of a ship on the horizon, about to make a desperate attempt to swim for it.

They never found his body.

17. Bess Allison got into a lifeboat with her daughter. But her baby boy was still missing, so she climbed back out at the last second.

She had no way of knowing he was already safe aboard another boat — the only member of the family to live through the night.

18. Thomson Beattie made it into the last available lifeboat. But the rescue ships didn’t find it — not for a month.

When they finally did, they found Beattie’s corpse inside, still in his evening dress — along with two dead sailors, their hair bleached white by the sun.

19. Beattie's constant companion, Thomas McCaffry, died too. His body was found adrift in the water soon after the sinking.

20. Major Peuchen tried to save the third Winnipeg musketeer — the ailing John Hugo Ross — after seeing the ice on deck.

"Is that all?” Ross asked. “It will take more than an iceberg to get me out of my bed."

He went straight back to sleep & is thought to have drowned in bed.

21. Peuchen headed back up to the deck.

As one of the lifeboats was being lowered, a crew member called out, asking if another experienced sailor could join him on board — he was afraid he couldn’t manage the boat alone.

Major Peuchen, the yachtsman, stepped forward.

22. He was forced to make a daring leap into the lowering boat, but he made it.

This is a photo of that same lifeboat getting rescued the next morning. Thanks to his jump, Peuchen had survived the sinking of the Titanic…

And would be publicly reviled for the rest of his days.

23. Men weren't supposed to have survived the Titanic.

When he got back to Toronto, Peuchen was ostracized from society. His business suffered. And though eye witnesses defended him, he was repeatedly accused of having disguised himself as a woman to escape the sinking ship.

24. He finally died in 1929, just after the stock market crashed, and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

But his reputation wasn't the only thing he left behind out there in the middle of the Atlantic…

25. Since the iceberg struck while he was getting dressed for bed, he must have left his wallet behind in his room when he rushed out to investigate. Or maybe it fell out of his pocket when he made that daring leap.

So when the Titanic sank, Major Peuchen's wallet sank with it.

26. It settled onto the sandy ocean floor, not far from where the hulk of the Titanic rests.

And even though it spent decades down there, it was remarkably well-preserved: the tannins used to treat the leather kept it protected from the water.

27. So when the Soviet submarine crew brought it back to the surface in 1987 & carefully cracked it open, they found Peuchen's things still inside it:

A season’s pass for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, traveller's cheques, business cards and 12 tickets for the Toronto streetcar.

Thanks for reading!

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