The ocean-liner the SS Minnesota was owned by Canadian-American railroad executive who became known as what during his lifetime?
James J. Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916), was a Canadian-American railroad executive. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest. Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as "The Empire Builder."
John Thayer (cricketer) John Borland Thayer II (April 21, 1862April 15, 1912) was an American businessman who had a thirty-year career as an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He was a director and second vice-president of the company when he died a week before his 50th birthday in the sinking of the RMS "Titanic", on April 15, 1912. In his youth, Thayer was also a prominent sportsman, playing baseball and lacrosse for the University of Pennsylvania and first-class cricket for the Philadelphian cricket team. He is the only first-class cricketer known to have died aboard "Titanic".