TWO GREAT TENNIS STARS WHO SURVIVED THE TITANIC

by Noel Callaghan

IT WAS OVER 100 YEARS AGO, MORE THAN 1500 PEOPLE DIED IN THE MOST FAMOUS SHIPWRECK IN HISTORY. TWO OF THE WORLD'S BEST TENNIS PLAYERS 

RICHARD WILLIAMS AND KARL BEHR - SURVIVED

On April 10, 1912, with great fanfare, the RMS Titanic began its maiden voyage. The world's largest and most expensive ship at that time pushed off from a pier in Southampton, England, stopped briefly at Cherbourg, France at 6.30pm and leaves at 8.10pm heading to Queenstown, Ireland, and then headed west into the open Atlantic to it's destination - New York City. 

Swiss born Richard Norris Williams (known as Dick and a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin) was 21 when accompanied by his father, an American Attorney, Charles Duane Williams, boarded on their first-class passage in Cherbourg, France on their way to the US to play the summer tennis circuit before commencing College at Harvard in 1912.

The Titanic leaving on her maiden Voyage, April 10, 1912

On the train ride to the ship Dick did a double take when he saw confidant of Teddy Roosevelt and member of the US Davis Cup team, Karl Behr. They would not meet each other again on the Titanic.

(pictured left) Richard Norris Williams (Dick) (pictured right) Karl Behr

Behr was a 26-year-old Tennis standout Yale graduate when he boarded the Titanic, but was in Europe not for tennis, it was in pursuit of his future wife, 19 year old Helen Newsom.  Behr, who had been ranked among the top 10 US players four times, had also reached the Wimbledon doubles final in 1907.

(pictured left) 26 year old  Karl Behr (pictured right) 19 year old Helen Newsom

At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, 1,000 or so miles east of Boston and 375 miles south of Newfoundland, one of the Titanic's crewmen, Frederick Fleet, saw something protruding from the water, sounded a three-bell alarm and bellowed, "Iceberg, right ahead!", the 'unsinkable' vessel struck it.  (Only 37 seconds passed between the sighting of the iceberg and hitting it.)

1912 illustration of Titanic's collision with the iceberg at 11.40pm on Sunday 14 April

Dick Williams would later recall that he and his father were initially jolted but not particularly worried as his father had been involved in a similar incident decades earlier onboard another ship.  Likewise, Behr would write, "to our minds the idea of the Titanic sinking was preposterous."

The squash court where Williams had spent so much time had started to flood and more importantly, so had the ship's boiler rooms. passengers started fastening life belts when they quickly recognized the severity of the situation, Behr was offered the chance by J Bruce Ismay, managing director of the Titanic's owners, to get out early with Newsom as they boarded lifeboat No. 5 - the second boat to escape as they needed men to row.  Ismay, who also survived, was later vilified in the press and labelled "Coward of the Titanic" for his behaviour on the night. Just 700 of the 2,200 passengers and crew survived.

lowering lifeboats as seen in 1997 Film "Titanic" directed by James Cameron

As the letters of the ship's name on the bow were about to slip underwater, Dick and his Father decided it was time to abandon ship, as they were saying their goodbyes, one of the ship's enormous smokestacks came crashing down, Dick darted out of the way, but his Father Charles was crushed, instantly killed.  Dick jumped into the ocean in 28 degree (below freezing) water when he began to swim for his life.
  

Dick with his Father Charles

Williams saw something in the water and swam to it, it was a collapsible boat that hadn't been assembled, about 30 passengers would cling to it." Nineteen of them would freeze to death. For as long as three hours Williams waited in the partially submerged lifeboat. He watched as the body of the Titanic cracked and the stern belly flopped into the ocean. By 2:45am on April 15 the ship had sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

2.45am, April 15 the Titanic sinks to the bottom of the ocean

Despite being waist-deep in the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Williams survived and was taken aboard the RMS Carpathia, the steamship made famous for plucking hundreds of Titanic passengers to safety. 

Suffering from hypothermia a doctor offered to amputate Williams’ badly frozen purple legs to prevent an onset of gangrene, but Williams rejected the doctor’s recommendation and reportedly said, "I'm going to need these legs".  Williams walked up and down the deck in what proved a successful attempt to restore circulation to his aching limbs. It was on the Carpathia that Williams and Behr would finally meet, while Behr helped many survivors, Williams later said that his fellow tennis player had shown him great kindness.  The London Independent Newspaper quoted Behr as saying, "Although the sinking of the Titanic was dreadful ... the four days among the sufferers on the Carpathia was much worse and more difficult to forget." 

The RMS Carpathia became famous for saving survivors of the Titanic

706 people in total rescued from 16 lifeboats and also from the sea by RMS Carpathia

Survivors onboard the Carpathia

On the night of April 18 the Carpathia passed the Statue of Liberty and docked at Pier 54 on the West Side of Manhattan, five berths south of where the Titanic was to have ended her maiden voyage. Thousands of New Yorkers had gathered to aid the 706 survivors with food, blankets and clothes. Keeping his sense of humor, Williams remarked that for once he breezed through customs.

suffering hypothermia Junior Officer Harold McBridge was escorted off Carpathia in New York 

Behr, according to family members, suffered profound survivor's guilt. Afterward Behr rarely spoke of his ordeal in April 1912. Neither did Williams. 

Back then you put things in a [mental] compartment in your mind. You tried not to dwell. You got on with your life and that's what both men did. After arriving in New York, Williams' body healed and within weeks he was back playing tennis. His legs were deeply discolored from his ordeal in the water, but his long pants concealed them when he played.  That summer Williams beat a promising local teenager, Bill Tilden - who would go on to become the greatest player of his era.  In 1912 he won the mixed doubles at the US Championships and the National Clay Court Singles in his first American season. Williams finished that summer season ranked No. 2 in the US and after a successful freshman year, Williams was chosen for the 1913 US Davis Cup team and was the finalist in the US Championships. By the time Williams graduated, he was amongst the best players in the world. 

Bill Tilden, Bill Johnston, Vincent Richards and Dick Williams - 1925 US Davis Cup Team 

Tennis remained an integral part of both men's lives.  Dick Williams and Karl Behr would play each other at least twice after the sinking of the Titanic.  It was only three months later in July 1912 when Behr was the victor in a long five set marathon on the lawns of the Longwood Cricket Club near Boston.  They would meet again in the 1914 quarterfinals of the US Nationals in Newport (this event would later become the US Open). Taking advantage of his opponent's fragile spirit, Williams beat Behr 6-2, 6-2, 7-5. Sadly, little was ever made of their remarkable backstory. Interestingly this was the last time the tournament was played at Newport, Behr having successfully campaigned for it to be switched to Forest Hills, New York, a move that Williams opposed.

Karl Behr highest world ranking no. 3 in 1907 and 1914

Dick Williams - highest world ranking no. 2 1916

Dick Williams went on to take the US Championship Title for the first time which he won again two years later in 1916.  In 1920 he teamed up with Charles Garland and they became the only Harvard-Yale combination to ever win the Wimbledon doubles. For 13 years Williams was a US Davis Cup stalwart both as a player and active captain (winning five times - one time with Karl Behr in the team). In 1924 Williams was a finalist in the Wimbledon Men's Doubles, that same year, at the Paris Olympics, aged 33 and with a sprained ankle, he and the great Hazel Wightman won the Gold Medal in Mixed Doubles. Williams also went on to win two US Men's Doubles in 1925 and 1926 and was Runner Up in 1927.

Dick Williams and Hazel Wightman won the 1924 Paris Olympic Gold Medal in  the Mixed 

Karl Behr was a great patriot and a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Behr organised the Great Preparedness Parade in New York in 1916 in support of American involvement in the war.  Behr was rejected for military service as he was told due to his German ancestry; The stress of that setback, combined with his survivor's guilt led him to a complete emotional breakdown where he would spend a brief spell in a sanitarium in western New York in 1917. He was eventually allowed to serve just as the war ended. The media had been cruel to Behr over his Titanic survival being scrutinized for his romance with Newsom and about his gallantry as there was a "women and children first" policy, the press neglected to report he had been ordered to row the lifeboat - and those aboard all believed there were ample lifeboats for ALL the passengers. To the horror of everyone else on board, there WERE NOT enough lifeboats to save everyone.

Helen Newsom and Karl Behr in later life

Williams was conscripted for duty in the Army and was dispatched to Europe in 1917. One of the ships in the convoy was the Carpathia.  Williams served with distinction in the second Battle of the Marne in July 1918 and was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre by the French government after the war. 

Following their retirement from tennis, both men made small fortunes as financiers, Williams in Philadelphia and Behr in New York City, where he served on the boards of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and the National Cash Register Company. 

The extraordinary life of these two accomplished yet humble gentlmen saw Williams inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957 and Behr, posthumously, in 1969.  Ironically, Williams and Behr never became more than casual friends. It was if getting too close might remind them of something they did not want to remember.

Karl Howell Behr died of cancer at his home on 15 October 1949, aged 64, Helen Monypeny Newsom (Behr) later remarried and died on 7 September 1965 aged 72. Richard Norris Williams died of emphysema on June 2, 1968, aged 77.  Arguably, their greatest triumph was surviving history’s most famous shipwreck.

(left) Richard Norris Williams  (1891 – 1968) (right) Karl Howell Behr (1885 - 1949)

Titanic’s rescue ship, Carpathia, was sunk by a German U-Boat during the First World War.  On July 17, 1918, the Carpathia was attacked by U-55 approximately 120 miles off the Irish Coast. Only three members of the crew lost their lives (due to the initial torpedo explosion in the engine room) while the 57 passengers and 218 members of the crew safely evacuated the vessel in the lifeboats. This photograph - taken from the Royal Navy Azalea-class sloop HMS Snowdrop shows Carpathia sinking under the waves. The Snowdrop would chase off U-55 before recovering the survivors in lifeboats.

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(Notes: 37)
  FILED UNDER: RMS Carpathia Carpathia Titanic RMS Titanic History World War One First World War