It’s a question our partner, Brussels media outlet Bruzz, has attempted to find an answer to! The story of Jack and Rose in the Hollywood classic 'Titanic' is world-famous. But did you know that this fictional romance closely resembles the life story of the only Brussels passenger on the luxury liner? Bruzz investigates!
James Cameron, director of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Titanic' (1997), partly based the film's screenplay on stories of real-life passengers. There is a suspicion that he also drew inspiration from the story of Berthe Mayné, a woman from the Brussels borough of Elsene, who survived the disaster.
Berthe grew up in a modest family and built a career as a cabaret singer. When she was 24, she met Quigg Baxter, a wealthy Canadian hockey player, at the Hotel Métropole in Brussels, while she was performing there. He too was also 24 at the time and there on holiday with his mother and sister. It was love at first sight between Berthe and Quigg, but the Canadian would travel back to Canada on the Titanic three months later.
He asked Berthe to accompany him so that they could get married and secretly booked a cabin for her just below his suite. She embarked under a false name and during the trip they met on the sly. His family knew nothing of the relationship. Does this forbidden love across class lines ring any bells?
First meeting with prospective in-laws in the lifeboat!
It was only on the evening of the catastrophe that Berthe met her would-be in-laws for the first time, in a lifeboat. Quigg asked his mother and sister to take good care of his beloved Berthe. He could not accompany them as women and children were to be rescued first.
Berthe refused to leave her great love behind and she also wanted to return for her jewellery. Fellow passenger and later survivor activist Molly Brown convinced her to stay. Brown became famous after the shipwreck for urging the crew of the lifeboat to go back and rescue more passengers and got a major role in Cameron's blockbuster.
Love story ends in tragedy
The three women in Quigg's life all survived the disaster but his body was never recovered. Berthe stayed in Canada for several more months but was never accepted by Quigg's family.
With a suitcase full of grief, she returned to Brussels and Paris to resume work as a cabaret singer. Several lovers crossed her path, but she never married. She eventually settled in Brussels where she died at the age of 75.
Berthe's family had a hard time believing her story. After all, her name was not on the passenger list. It was only after her death, when a cousin recovered an old shoebox with photos and newspaper clippings that her story was corroborated.