NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY
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On April 15, 1912, 110 years ago, a disaster unfolded in the North Atlantic.
The RMS Titanic, operated by White Star Line, reputed to be unsinkable, struck an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, U.K., to New York City.
More than 1,500 passengers died.
One of the survivors had ties to Orillia and Simcoe County.
Maj. Arthur Godfrey Peuchen was a first-class passenger on the Titanic who survived the sinking on Lifeboat 6, and was the only Canadian who testified at the United States Senate inquiry held into the tragedy.
In 1893, Peuchen, of the Queen’s Own Rifles, who had served as a marshalling officer at the coronation of George V, married Margaret Thomson, daughter of local lumber baron and president of the Longford Lumber Company, John Thomson.
Peuchen was president of the Standard Chemical Company, which ultimately purchased the Longford Lumber Company. In 1907, Peuchen purchased a stately Victorian estate called Woodlands, located on nearby Kempenfelt Bay at Shanty Bay.
Fortunately, Peuchen’s wife and two children did not accompany him on the ship for that fatal voyage.
Before he arrived home, after testifying at the Senate inquiry, he came under attack in the Toronto newspapers about his coming forward to claim he was a yachtsman just so he could get off the Titanic. They complained that if there had been a fire, he would have said he was a fireman.
Despite the accusations, in fact, it was his finest hour. To read more about how Peuchen survived the sinking of the Titanic and of his final harrowing hours aboard the ship, click here.
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