Canadians Returning Home with Olivier Courteaux – FREE lecture

Charles Hays and Quigg Baxter

Charles Hays was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway and the governor of McGill University as well as a couple of hospitals in Montreal. He was hurrying back to Canada to attend the opening of his brand new hotel: the Château Laurier in Ottawa. The owner of the Titanic had personally invited him to take the celebrated new ship home, and Hays brought his family, his secretary and a maid with him. Still, he wasn’t entirely impressed by ocean liners. Just an hour earlier, Hays had made a troubling prediction, “The time will come soon when this trend will be checked by some appalling disaster.”

Athlete, football and hockey player, Quigg Baxter was the son of James Baxter, a banker, and Helene de Lanaudiere Chaput (a descendant of the French-Canadian aristocracy). The family boarded the Titanic in Cherbourg, France. What he did not tell his mother, is that a 24-year old cabaret singer, Berthe Mayné, whom he had met in Brussels, his mistress would also be part of the trip. He had booked her on the ship under the assumed name of Mme De Villiers.