Titanic struck the iceberg

(Audio begins with verse 1 & chorus of traditional song, The Ship Titanic, then fades to…)

When Titanic struck the iceberg and shook the world around

She carried quite a crowd, some rich and of renown

Her loss hit hard on a north Pacific town:

Titanic struck the iceberg—Prince Rupert’s hopes went down.

 

       Lost in the Atlantic was Charles Melville Hays

 With a new Pacific route shorter by two days

 A port to the north of Vancouver’s CPR

 His Grand Trunk Pacific, Prince Rupert’s hope and star.

 

CHORUS      

 

But Titanic struck the iceberg and ’Rupert’s hopes went down

Her hopes to outshine Vancouver town

A shorter path to the orient had been found.

But Titanic struck the iceberg and ’Rupert’s hopes went down

 

 

Charles Hays was genie of U.S. rail lines

Like Van Horne, he saw a future north of Forty-Nine

He’d trump Van Horne with a seaport all his own

But Titanic struck the iceberg and took Prince Rupert down.

 

       Vancouver’s a great port, Prince Rupert offered more:

 A deeper harbour, nearer the Asian shore

 Grand Trunk was rising, hoped to win the crown

 Till Titanic struck the iceberg and ’Rupert’s hopes went down.

(chorus)

Hays was on Titanic, a guest of Bruce Ismay

Sketching her interiors for hotels along the way

Grand Trunk chateaux in all its major towns

Till Titanic struck the iceberg and ’Rupert’s hopes went down.

Chateau Laurier’s opening was put off till Fall

Others Hays had planned were never built at all

His line reached ’Rupert but its force was spent and done

When Titanic struck the iceberg—Prince Rupert’s hopes went down.

(chorus)

The lines spread west of Winnipeg, built competing towns:

Calgary and Edmonton, Regina and Saskatoon

But hopes to build a rival to Vancouver came undone

When Titanic struck the iceberg—Prince Rupert’s hopes went down.

Rupert’s still a port where a CN branchline ends

With a VIA train biweekly, cruise ships now and then

Tourists and grain, and dream of glory days:

The Pacific port triumphant of Charles Melville Hays.

(chorus)