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.
