Charles Melville Hays. Mr Charles Melville Hays, passenger on the Titanic, was 55 - born at Rock Island, Illinois, USA, on 16 May 1856. He was educated at the public schools of Rock Island, and went to work for the Atlantic and Pacific Railway when he was 17. At 22 he was appointed secretary to the Manager of the Missouri Pacific Railway. In 1896 he moved to Montreal to become general manager of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. It was Hays who convinced the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, of the need for a second transcontinental railroad. Hays and his wife and daughter were on the Titanic and when it struck the iceberg. As he put his wife and daughter into a lifeboat, he assured them Titanic would stay 'afloat for at least 10 hours' - he never believed it would sink so quickly. Hays drowned in the disaster, but the Minia recovered his body on 26 April. His coffin was brought back to Montreal for burial aboard his private railway car, Canada. The car is still preserved and on display at the Canadian Railway Museum near Delson, Quebec. Titanic was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast Ireland during 1910 - 1911, and sank on 15ht April, 1912, after striking an iceberg off the coast of New Foundland during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, USA, with the loss of 1,522 passengers and crew.