(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)