Karl Behr boarded the RMS Titanic carrying a diamond ring with him and the hope of disembarking in New York as an engaged man. The handsome, athletic, sandy-haired Behr must have cut a fine figure as he walked up the gangplank in Southampton, his breast filled with a trembling anticipation, his mind filled with the image of a woman: the 19-year-old beauty Helen Newsom, a friend of his younger sister.
Behr had concocted a business trip to Europe as an excuse for encountering Newsom, whose parents, according to some accounts, had taken her abroad in hope of separating the couple. Behr saw his chance to “stumble upon” Newsom and her mother and stepfather, Sallie and Richard Beckwith, when he received a telegram from Newsom that said “Sailing home from England on Titanic’s maiden voyage.” Behr, who was in Berlin at the time, booked passage home on the same vessel without telling Newsom.
The surprise was no doubt a pleasant one for Newsom, if not her parents. Newsom’s parents were dissatisfied with the age gap between Behr and their daughter. Behr, for his part, was determined to win over his prospective in-laws prior to making the proposal.
The world must have seemed bright and full of possibility to the 26-year-old American tennis star as he made himself at home in cabin C-148 aboard the Titanic. The goal of his courtship was almost within reach.
The luxury White Star liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage to America in 1912, is seen here on trials in Belfast Lough. Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
But the conclusion of the voyage would contrast sharply with this promising beginning. A small incident during the vessel’s departure foreshadowed what was to come: As the Titanic moved toward open ocean, another ship, the New York, swung into its path, and it took an hour’s maneuvering to avoid collision. But it’s unlikely anyone thought much of this, and the massive ship—at that time the largest man-made object in the world—and its 2,200 passengers and crew was soon at sea.
The first days of the voyage passed satisfactorily enough: Behr spent his time with the Beckwiths and their daughter, working to win their approval. And when the Titanic docked at Madeira, Morocco, and Southern France, Behr and Newsom went ashore together for romantic walks in seaside towns, while the vast bulk of the ship waited in the harbor below.
As the ocean liner made its final stop in Europe at Queenstown, Ireland, probably no one aboard anticipated what was about to happen. As Behr wrote later, “To our minds the idea of the Titanic sinking was preposterous.”
But on the night of April 14, that unthinkable reality happened. As the Titanic coursed through the frigid expanse of the North Atlantic Sea, some 1,300 miles from its destination, it entered an area known to contain icebergs. At 9:40 p.m., the Titanic’s wireless room received a warning from another ship, the Mesaba, about a dangerous ice field. For some reason, that message was never passed on to the bridge. Everything aligned itself against the Titanic and its crew that night as the doomed ship steamed through the dark waters; someone had misplaced the binoculars for the crow’s nest, making it harder for the lookouts to spot potential dangers. Further, the stillness of the sea that night exacerbated the problem because any icebergs in the water didn’t throw up as much spray as they normally would, thus decreasing their visibility.
At about 11:40, the crew spotted an iceberg dead ahead and First Officer William Murdoch ordered a “hard-a-starboard” turn to avoid the obstacle. However, partly due to the ship’s size, the turn couldn’t be completed fast enough to avoid collision. The iceberg scraped along the Titanic’s starboard side, tearing open at least five compartments near the bow.
Karl Behr was still awake. He felt the jolt of the impact. In a statement recorded in Jay Henry Mowbray’s 1912 report “Sinking of the ‘Titanic,'” Behr wrote, “I felt a distinct jar run through the whole vessel, which quivered all over. It was distinct enough for me to be certain that we had hit something. I dressed again immediately, my first thought and purpose being to reach my party at once.” Behr went to Deck A, where he saw that some passengers were already putting on life belts. The board beneath his feet slanted away from him toward the glittering sea—the ship was already listing toward the starboard side at an odd angle. Something was definitely amiss.
Behr leapt into action. He hastened below deck to wake Newsom and her parents. Though some 40 minutes passed before the crew gave any warning to the passengers, Behr and Richard Beckwith knew that all was not well and time was slipping away. They instructed the women to put on warm clothing and forsake their belongings. The little party then headed for the main deck.
Behr’s swift action likely saved his own life and the lives of the other three. “I knew exactly where the lifeboats were, so Miss Newsom and I and Mr. and Mrs. Beckwith went to the top deck,” Behr recalled in his statement to Mowbray. “We waited quietly while the first boat filled and was lowered. It appeared to me to be quite full.”
Women and children were being loaded into the boats first. Behr was prepared to remain onboard after seeing his love safely loaded into the second lifeboat. Mrs. Beckwith stepped forward and asked whether her men (Behr and her husband) could get into the boat along with her and Newsom. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of White Star Lines (the company that owned the Titanic), responded, ‘Why certainly, madam,’ and the whole group boarded. Ismay was following a ‘women-first-but-men-if-there’s-still-room’ policy.”
As Behr later told the Newark Evening News, the little group assumed at that point that there were plenty of lifeboats for all the passengers. According to Behr, there was still extra room in the lifeboat when it left the ship.
Mrs. Beckwith stepped forward and asked whether her men (Behr and her husband) could get into the boat along with her and Newsom. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of White Star Lines (the company that owned the Titanic), responded, ‘‘Why certainly, madam,’ and the whole group boarded. Ismay was following a ‘women-first-but-men-if-there’s-still-room’ policy.”
Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Lines. Public Domain
The collection of lifeboats floated silently in the dark ocean and their occupants endured the horrifying ordeal of watching the ship go down. In an interview with Yale Daily News, Behr called it “too horrible for description as the men on board rushed toward the stern only to be engulfed and sucked down by the suction.”
But Behr and his beloved Newsom had survived, avoiding the briny grave that so many of their fellow passengers came to rest in. They were among that fortunate collection of 705 souls who escaped death that night—a figure well under half the total number of passengers and crewmen aboard. Many more lost their lives to the waves than survived them.
Behr, Newsom, and the other survivors were picked up by the Carpathia at around 4:00 a.m., three and a half hours after the tragedy. What thoughts and shuddering, whispered words passed among the survivors during that interval, as they waited there in the dark and awful silence after the last light of the ship vanished into the ocean, we’ll never know. But when the group first saw the lights of the Carpathia approaching, hope was rekindled in their hearts.
The Titanic's Collapsible Boat D approaches RMS Carpathia at 7:15 a.m. on April 15, 1912. Public Domain
Some newspapers reported that Behr proposed to Newsom right then and there, in the lifeboat. But this is likely a fable. Whatever the timing, we know that he did propose. And she said yes. The couple was married in March of 1913.
Just as they had shared that harrowing journey at sea, so they shared the journey of the remainder of their lives together, salvaging joy even from the greatest of tragedies.
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Walker Larson
Author
Prior to becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master's in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, "Hologram" and "Song of Spheres."
