The Carinthia Secret

By Russ Smith

What took place on the first world cruise on RMS Carinthia in 1925-26 that has remained a secret for so long? Authorities have hidden the identity of the wealthy murderer for nearly 100 years. Why?

Wealthy, kind, generous, and handsome, are words used to describe the killer by his fellow passengers. How could such dark secrets about a murderer be kept from everyone on board, including the woman he fell in love with and married while traveling around the world on the Carinthia?

Learn about life on board the luxury liner and meet the people who traveled together for five months, unaware of the danger posed by their fellow passenger, Davie Tidwell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543938005

Book preview

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Introduction

October 1925

The RMS Carinthia made her maiden voyage in August, so she is one of the newest and most luxurious ships afloat in 1925. Although smaller than the larger Cunard liners Aquitania and Mauritania, the Carinthia still has a length of over 600 feet and can accommodate 1650 passengers for transatlantic crossings. On the world cruise though, much of the accommodation is unused, with only 379 passengers occupying the better cabins and suites for the long journey. Of course, some of these passengers will bring servants, who will be accommodated in the 3rd class cabins on the lower decks of the ship.

The amenities of life on board the Carinthia are numerous; modern elevators, spacious promenades, garden lounges, an orchestra, a swimming pool, and a daily wireless newspaper. The ship has every modern invention for safe navigation, including watertight doors, gyroscopic compasses, a long-range wireless, and a submarine signaling system.

The vessel will carry no cargo on the world cruise, so the passengers will not be inconvenienced by the rattle of winches and the noise of cargo handling. Only oil fuel is used, so there is no need to coal the ship, a noisy business, particularly in the many native ports on the itinerary.

The Carinthia was built especially for cruising, to the specifications set forth by Cunard. She has, because of her modern propulsion system, unusually large open areas, spacious public rooms and broad decks. There are seven decks, 38 lifeboats, and a very powerful wireless telegraph that can be used by the passengers throughout the trip to maintain contact with loved ones and to conduct business.

The passengers who will board the Carinthia for a nearly 5-month world cruise will start their journey on Saturday morning, October 10, 1925. With various expectations about the adventure they will soon undertake as they prepare to head to the Cunard pier, most will be looking forward to the trip with excitement and high expectations. Yet a few will board the ship with worries or problems that a world cruise will not be able to solve.

The passengers are coming come from all across the United States and Canada, organized and managed by the leading travel company, Raymond & Whitcomb. While the average annual income in the U.S. in 1925 is now almost $2,000, each passenger has paid between $2,000 and $12,750 for their passage and will perhaps double or triple that amount again for optional tours, wine, cocktails, tips for the crew, and for on-board services.

It’s a diverse group of people coming together for the cruise. The only two things they have in common are the ability to be away from home for over five months and the ability to pay a fortune to see the world in comfort and style. Most passengers have spent the past few days taking the train from their homes in various parts of North America to New York. Some only travel a few miles from their apartments in Manhattan or homes in the New York suburbs. A small number of passengers from the West will join the ship in Los Angeles or San Francisco after she passes through the Panama Canal.

Some of the passengers made their fortunes from the World War, and some became wealthy during the recent stock market boom. Many own profitable family businesses in places like Cleveland, Wichita, or Mobile, while others inherited wealth that was built generations ago and come from places like Boston, New York, or Baltimore.

Cliques and a social hierarchy will soon form as people get to know each other and acclimate themselves to life on board the Carinthia. There will be romances and friendships; some business deals will even be struck; and people who had never before met will play together, dine together, and take exotic tours with each other. Gossip will be an on-board currency valued by many and despised by a few. Blue bloods will be exasperated and the newly rich will be excited to find themselves sharing the same dining room and traveling together on tours in places like India and China.

The idea of a deluxe round the world cruise is a relatively new concept. The first such cruise was only offered a few years ago in 1922. Each year since, ships and new ports of call have been added to world cruise itineraries. The Carinthia will be the first such cruise ship to call at ports in New Zealand and Australia as part of a world tour.

Life on board and the etiquette of a long cruise is different than on a traditional ship that transports passengers across the Atlantic. Because of the tropical weather during most of the journey, dress is less formal, particularly during the day. People will dress for dinner, but only the most obvious social climbers will wear overly formal or elegant attire. The amount of socializing with other passengers will also be much greater than on an ocean crossing. Given the amount of time together in a confined space, the ship will become a small village where everyone will know everyone else and where few secrets will be kept.

Itinerary: October 10th 1925 – March 3rd 1926

October 10th - Depart New York AM

October 13th - 14th Havana

October 17th - Transit Panama Canal, visit Panama City & Balboa

October 25th - Los Angeles

October 27th - San Francisco

November 2nd - Hilo, Hawaii

November 3rd - Honolulu, Hawaii

November 14th- 22nd - Japan, with included tours in Nikko, Tokyo, Kamakura, & Kyoto. Several optional tours.

November 25th - 28th Taku, China, with tour to Peking, with travel via rail.

December 2nd - 4th - Hong Kong

December 6th - Manila, Philippines

December 8th - Zamboanga, Mindanao

December 14th - Port Moresby, New Guinea

December 21st - 22nd Auckland New Zealand

December 24th - Wellington New Zealand

December 28th - 29th – Sydney, Australia

December 31st - Hobart, Tasmania

January 2nd - 3rd - Melbourne, Australia

January 8th - Fremantle/Perth

January 13th - 14th, - Batavia, Java

January 16th - Singapore

January 21st - 24th Colombo, Ceylon

January 27th - February 6th Bombay, with included 5-day trip to Delhi, Agra, Benares.

February 15th – 18th - Egypt – Arrive at Suez and depart from Alexandria. Three-day land trip includes pyramids and Cairo.

February 21st - 22nd – Naples/Pompeii Italy.

February 23rd - Monaco, includes visit to Nice.

February 26th - Gibraltar

March 1st - Cherbourg, France

March 1st - 3rd - Southampton

March 10th or later – Connecting steamer from Southampton to New York

Chapter 1

Sarah McQueen is not one of the passengers who is excited about the cruise. If you ask her about the ports the ship will be visiting, she might say, I don’t know, and I don’t care. The ship is taking me away from New York and Bert. That’s all I know.

Sarah is attractive and smart, and she knows it. She isn’t stunning, but when she walks into a room, men turn their heads to take a look. She likes to think it has more to do with her attitude and intelligence than anything else, but Sarah knows that she has a certain look that draws attention. Sarah felt she had the brains, social position, and the drive to accomplish something in life. While most of the other girls at school were looking for a husband, Sarah planned to go on to law school and then into politics. This was 1925, after all: women could vote now. But Sarah had fallen for Bert, and there was nothing she could do about it. How she would make her mark on the world would have to take into account Bert and his plans.

Sarah looked a lot like her mother, with the same Scandinavian blue eyes and blonde hair, which she kept short, in the current fashion. The only thing Sarah would change about her appearance, if she could, was her height. At 5’4" Sarah wasn’t short, but she would rather be a few inches taller, like her sister, Margaret.

Sarah’s parents - but mostly her father - were forcing her to go on the trip, in the hope that the long separation would cause her to reconsider her relationship. She wasn’t formally engaged, but she and Bert had talked about marriage and discussed plans for the future. Sarah finally agreed to go on the cruise to prove to her father and to herself that her relationship with Bert could survive anything, even a long separation of five months.

Sarah will not have far to go to board the ship. She will travel with her parents and her older sister Margaret from the family penthouse apartment on 5th Avenue that overlooks Central Park. Only Sarah and Margaret will be going on the cruise, but their parents will accompany them to the Chelsea Pier to see them off, to be certain Sarah boards the ship and doesn’t slip away before the ship departs.

Bert, the man she loves, will take the subway from Brooklyn to see her leave on the trip intended to put an end to their relationship.

The fact that Sarah and Bert met and had the chance to fall in love was against all odds. Sarah grew up on the Upper East Side and is taking a one-year leave from Wellesley for the trip. Her family don’t rank in the top tier of New York society, but they are members of St. James Episcopal Church on Madison Avenue and try have an active New York social life. Her prosperous neighborhood is a world away from the Brooklyn neighborhood where Bert grew up.

Bert is from Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia who built several grocery stores in the neighborhood where he lives. Against the wishes of both of their families, they both became active in the socialist political movement that had taken root in New York over the past few years, where they met at a political rally while Sarah was home from college in the summer of 1924.

When the families learned of the relationship, efforts were made by both sides to keep them apart. At breakfast, on the morning after Sarah told her family about Bert, her father started in on Bert before he had his first piece of bacon.

He’s Jewish, for God’s sake. This guy wouldn’t be allowed to be a member of my club, to live in this building, or even be a guest at one of my hotels. So, I’m certainly not going to have him become a member of my family, he continued, while the maid filled his coffee cup. Furthermore, we have a position in the community, he does not. You go to college; Bert only finished high school and now works as a shopkeeper. And this socialist activism nonsense that he dragged you into; well that’s all going to stop. I’m a real estate developer and financier, for crying out loud.

Nothing Sarah could say could change her father’s mind. She had tried constantly over the past few weeks, even promising to postpone any talk of engagement for a year. But she had no success - ever since her father issued his ultimatum, she felt that her life was over. Her father had managed to keep her and Bert apart since it was decided she would take a year off from school and go on the cruise. At least Bert had promised to be at the pier to see her before they left.

Thank God for the telephone, Sarah thought as she started the job of packing for the trip. Without the phone, I wouldn’t have been able to speak to Bert this past month, while I’ve been a virtual prisoner in my own home. Wait ‘til Papa sees the wireless telegraph bill I intend to run up while on that ship.

Sarah vowed to herself that she would be stronger and stand up to her father when she returned, and move to Brooklyn, or further if need be, to be with Bert. She would be twenty-one early next year and have access to a small trust fund left to her by her grandmother. She wouldn’t be wealthy, but she would be able live off the proceeds from the fund and do what she wanted.

While Sarah was sorting out what to pack in her steamer trunk, Margaret came in to see how she was doing. Margaret lived only a few blocks away in one of the new apartments over on Park Avenue.

It won’t be that bad, Bolshie, Margaret exclaimed as she helped Sarah decide which hat to wear. Bolshie was the nickname Margaret gave her sister when she learned about Sarah’s involvement with the socialists. You can help the crew organize a union while we are on board.

Even though Margaret was the opposite of Sarah in almost every way, she was the only family member who could make Sarah laugh and the only one Sarah could confide in. Margaret was five inches taller than Sarah and had what many would call statuesque beauty. While Sarah rebelled at every societal norm she felt was unjust, Margaret was a role model of what society expected of a woman of her age and class, and she used her knowledge of how society worked to her advantage. The sisters could argue and disagree for hours about almost everything but had genuine affection and respect for each other.

Margaret continued talking while helping her sister organize and decide which clothes to take. Have you seen the itinerary, Bolshie? No, not the black dress, we’re going to the tropics, aren’t we? Anyway, even if everyone on the ship is a bore, think of the places we’ll visit.

Sarah didn’t respond. She just sighed while putting the black dress back in the closet and taking out the beige one Bert liked.

Much better, I like that one, Margaret continued. We’re going to China and Japan, for Christ’s sake! Think Turandot and Madame Butterfly. And were going to Australia and India. There’ll be kangaroos and elephants and God knows what other creatures.

Sarah knew her sister meant well in trying to cheer her up, and she knew that Margaret was right. The trip would be the adventure of a lifetime. But she couldn’t bring herself to be enthusiastic, not with Bert left behind in Brooklyn. She decided to ask Margaret about something she had been thinking about.

Say Margaret, what if Bert were to convert and join the church? Do you think Papa would accept him then?

Not a chance, little one. As far as Papa is concerned, Bert is from the other side of the tracks and always will be. Once he forms an opinion about someone or something, it’s cast in stone.

Margaret was ten years older than Sarah. She usually did what was expected and found her social circle to be interesting, and occasionally entertaining. Rather than fight the system, as Sarah did, Margaret became an expert in how to exploit social rules and the system for her pleasure and to help people less fortunate than herself.

Margaret went to finishing school at Château Mont-Choisi in Switzerland and after her debut, fell in love and married a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt. Their perfect marriage lasted less than a year before it was ended by the influenza epidemic in 1918, which took Margaret’s husband, along with millions of others. Since she became a widow, Margaret hadn’t been in a serious relationship. She became active with various charities and served on several charity boards to help get over her loss. She eventually became active in the ever-changing New York social scene.

Margaret wasn’t planning to look for romance on the cruise but wasn’t averse to one if the right man came along. Meanwhile, she would keep an eye on her little sister during the voyage, and if the opportunity arose encourage Sarah to meet a socially acceptable man. Margaret had met Bert, and liked him, but things would be a lot easier if Sarah fell for someone that would fit in on the Upper East Side and got along with their father.

Chapter 2

Jefferson Davis Davie Tidwell left his home in Mobile, Alabama, for the last time on October 6 th , 1925, to board a train to New York, where he would begin the world cruise. The only child of parents who were both only children, Davie was the last of the family line. He didn’t really mind, since he was an independent sort and an adventurer at heart. He planned to use the cruise to take time to decide where he wanted to make his home next and what he wanted to do in the next chapter of his life.

The one thing he knew for sure was that he would not be settling in the South. He had spent time in Paris and London after the war where he had done some undercover work for the British intelligence services keeping an eye on communist agitators who hoped to take advantage of the post-war confusion to get a foothold in Britain and France. Since Davie’s mother came from Dorset, England, Davie had both American and British passports. Having two passports was unusual, but strings were pulled by his influential relatives and both were issued. For Davie, life in Mobile couldn’t hope to match the intrigue of his post-war work in Europe or the excitement of an evening on the town in Paris.

Unlike some of his close friends, Davie came home from the war without a scratch and, unlike many, without significant emotional baggage. To Davie, the war was one big adventure. He probably wouldn’t have returned from Europe if his father hadn’t threatened to cut him off financially. He knew his lifestyle would be sharply curtailed without access to the Tidwell fortune. So, he returned in late 1919, a few months before his father became one of last victims of the flu epidemic. His mother died years ago, before his return, leaving Davie with no remaining family ties to hold him in Mobile.

Davie did make an effort to make a go of things in Mobile, as his father had wished. He took over the family owned shipyard, which had done well during the war. But, believing there was little future for the business, now that the war to end all wars was over, he sold everything less than a year after inheriting the ship yard and a number of related businesses. A few months after the sale, a depression hit that lasted through most of 1921. Davie saw the depression as an opportunity, so he started investing aggressively in the stock market, buying on margin to multiply his earnings. Within a few years, he was one of the wealthiest men in Alabama and one of the wealthiest young men in the South.

Although Davie was one of the most eligible bachelors in Mobile, he never really worked to fit in. Mobile society, for people of his standing, was a small circle whose members held ideas and values that seemed to Davie more aligned to life before the Civil War. So, after living nearly five years in Mobile, he decided to make a break before he lost the chance to get away.

It was fortunate that Davie had money, because he was generous with his friends and comfortable spending money to enjoy the finer things in life. When he boarded the train, he looked forward to visiting the many clubs in New York. Prohibition was law in New York, as it was in Alabama, but from a previous visit two months ago, he knew that the social experiment had little impact on the nightlife in the brilliant city to the north.

Davie also looked forward to seeing his wartime friend, Tommy Thornton. Tommy had saved Davie’s life during an encounter with a German soldier, so there was a special bond between the two. Unlike Davie, poor Tommy didn’t have a good war. He returned to his home in Savannah as soon as he could after hostilities ended with no physical injuries, but with what the doctors had called, shell shock.

Tommy didn’t work for almost a year after his return and lived off money Davie sent him. He finally landed a job as a teacher, which he kept until last spring, when he was involved in an incident with one of the other teachers. When Davie learned of Tommy’s situation a few months ago, he invited Tommy to join him on the cruise and offered to pay his way. Tommy didn’t really have any other options, so he agreed to meet Tommy in New York.

During the war, people often assumed that Tommy and Davie were brothers. There were minor differences in appearance, but when standing side by side in their officer’s uniforms, they could almost have been twins. Although Tommy was about a quarter of an inch shorter than Davie, they both had the same piercing dark green eyes, jet black hair, and sharp angular chins. Their personalities were quite different though, with Davie being much more outgoing and gregarious than Tommy, but brothers often had different personalities. When they spoke, their voices and accents were similar. Only a native of Mobile or Savannah could tell the differences in their speech.

As the years following the war progressed, their outlook on life diverged, even though their appearance did not. Tommy became more depressed, introverted and resentful, while Davie became more optimistic and appreciative of what life could offer someone with his good looks, social position, and wealth. While it might be assumed that Tommy would be thankful for the help provided by Davie over the years and for the upcoming cruise, he was not. Tommy had lost most of what little he had saved in the 1921 crash and blamed anyone who came out of the slump with money. He looked back at the war, when his bleak moods began to occur, as a monstrous event started and orchestrated by industrialists to increase their wealth and influence at the expense of people like himself.

Tommy only packed a small case for the trip, since Davie told him that he had ordered a steamer trunk full of clothes for him that would be delivered to their suite on the ship. Just another chance to rub my face into the fact that I’m nearly penniless, Tommy thought.

As Tommy boarded the train for New York, a dark idea became to take shape in his mind. At first, it wasn’t all that detailed. I should be the one with the money and social position, not Davie. After all, I was the one who barely survived that awful war. It was just a party for him.

By the time the train crossed the border into North Carolina, the idea had progressed to thoughts like, If I had his money, things would be different. I would be in control of my life and free of this darkness that took hold of me in the trenches in France.

As the train passed into Virginia, a decision had been made and plans began to take shape. What if I became Jefferson Davis ‘Davie’ Tidwell? As the train rattled through Richmond, a more drastic decision was made. Of course, Davie will have to die, but I gave him his life when I saved him in 1917, so his life is mine to take back. But I’ll sort that out later.

Before Tommy could consider how to take care of Davie, he wanted to be sure he could pull off being Davie. I look a lot like him and we both have very similar voices and accents, but can I pull off presenting that sunny, perky disposition of his, and can I present the aura of confidence and optimism that Davie does?

He decided to try and see how people would react to his acting like Davie. He straightened his tie, combed his hair, and headed off to the dining car to give the act a try. If he could pull it off with the cheap suit he was wearing, he could surely get by dressed in the new clothes that awaited him on the ship.

When he entered the dining car, which was fairly full, he approached the steward and began to put on his act. With what he felt was an over played smile, he asked, while handing the steward a dollar, I say steward, could you seat me at that table with the young lady? She’s a cousin of mine from Atlanta.

The steward wasn’t sure about her being a cousin, but a dollar was a dollar, so he seated Tommy at the requested table. Tommy spent the next two hours smiling and telling his dinner partner about the upcoming social season in Savannah and a tale about how he traded suits with the clerk who worked in his father’s bank as a joke. He even pointed to someone at the other end of the dining car who was wearing an expensive outfit. Tommy didn’t just talk, he also listened to everything that the woman had to say, hanging on her every word and never taking his dark green eyes off her. Davie had often told him that appearing interested in what a woman had to say was the fastest way to her heart.

When dinner was over, Tommy spent the next hour or so chatting with the woman, until she left the train at Baltimore. Without his asking her, she gave him her card with her contact information. Tommy acted embarrassed and told her that he left his cards in the other suit, but he promised to call the next time he was in Baltimore.

After she departed, Tommy realized the experience was exhausting, but he said to himself, It worked. She appeared to believe everything I told her and seemed to enjoy herself. The waiter and steward both acted as if I was bit eccentric because of how I’m dressed, but they did respond favorably to me and appeared to accept all the lies I told them.

Tommy kept mostly to himself for the rest of the train journey. He knew that when he was not in one of his dark moods, he could be very organized, so he set forth to make a plan for how he would become Davie. He started to make a list of what needed to be done before he boarded the ship.

The first item on the list was appearance. While passing through Philadelphia, he thought about what he needed to do to change so that he looked even more like Davie. The clothes would not be an issue; there would be two steamer trunks of clothing on the ship, Davie’s and the one that Davie had bought for poor Tommy. He would need just one nice suit for when he boarded the ship. It was the small things that could trip him up that he needed to consider carefully. He thought back to New Year’s, when he last saw Davie, during his visit to Savannah.

I’ll need to get my hair cut a bit shorter and part it down the middle, rather than on the left side. Also, I’m a tad bit shorter, so I’ll get some inserts for my shoes There was something else that stuck in the back of his mind for next hour or so. The question was resolved after a man boarded the train in Trenton, New Jersey. The impeccably dressed man sat opposite Tommy. What was it about that man the reminds me of Davie, Tommy thought. He doesn’t look anything like Davie. He is much older, is quite short, and has a bushy mustache. He looks like a traveling salesman.

Then it hit Tommy. It was the cologne the man was wearing. Davie always wore that scent, even at the front in France. How he got it there was a mystery. Tommy decided to try the Davie confident smile and attitude again and ask the other passenger about the scent. If he could get away asking a stranger such a personal question, he might successfully put off the deception he was planning. Excuse me, sir, but what is that scent that you’re wearing? It’s the same one my father uses. I meant to get him a bottle of it as a gift but couldn’t recall the name.

That’s a hell of a question to ask a stranger, young man, the salesman responded, but harmless enough I suppose. It’s called Blenheim Bouquet.

Tommy thanked the man and went back to thinking about the things he needed to accomplish if he were to become Davie Tidwell. By the time the train arrived at Pennsylvania Station in New York, he completed the list of appearance changes he would need to make. There were a few more things on the list, including getting a manicure. Davie was always particular about his hands and nails. The idea of a man getting a manicure seemed a bit much to Tommy, but details were details.

The appearance changes were easy to take care of, since Tommy already looked a lot like Davie. Some of the other tasks that would be on his next set of lists would not be as easy. Fortunately, he had two days before the ship departed.

When he got to his room at the Hotel Chelsea, Tommy sat down at the desk and started to make lists on the stationary provided by the hotel. The title of the first list was Money. He had to learn as much about Davie’s finances as he could. It included things like:

Who were his brokers and bankers?

How did he access his money?

What did he invest in, and why?

Did he have any debts?

Tommy was going to have lunch with Davie on Friday and probably spend the rest of the day with him, so he would just ask the questions he needed answered. He came up with the idea to tell Davie that it looked like he might inherit a tidy sum from a distant