Frank Carlson was supposedly a First Class passenger of the Titanic who never boarded the ship but was on the passenger and casualty list.
Person[]
Frank Carlson was an American tourist, touring France. He was hoping to reach Cherbourg and preferred travelling with his own automobile instead of taking the train like several other passengers who boarded from France, and aimed to come back to America on the Titanic. Unfortunately, his car broke down when he was halfway into the journey. Before he could reach Cherbourg, Titanic had left, and he missed his voyage despite Titanic's one hour delay following the incident in Southampton.
But his name remained on the Passenger List, and later on the casualty list, when he failed to answer the roll call of survivors.
Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time[]
The 1996 PC Game Titanic: Adventure Out of Time's main character & protagonist is called Frank Carlson. He is never seen (POV of the player) except for one cutscene where Colonel Zeitel looks at the iceberg. Carlson is in the shadow, wearing the French-cut tuxedo mentioned by Beatrix Conkling.
First Mission[]
Carlson remained in his cabin, C-73, as instructed, for the entire voyage, awaiting his contact Penny Pringle. On the fateful night of the voyage he left his cabin to meet his past lover, Lady Georgia Lambeth, who had asked to meet him on deck. It is assumed that because Carlson left his cabin to meet Georgia, he missed his meeting with his contact and co-agent, Penny Pringle and she, therefore, cancelled his mission of retrieving the Rubaiyat. The ship struck the iceberg and started to sink and Carlson left the ship on a lifeboat.
Succeeding his mission would have given the British Secret Service power in Europe to prevent the imminent war brewing and subsequently could have gone into an era of peace. Instead, the Rubaiyat and diamond necklace would have left with Vlad Demonic and the painting and notebook would have left with Zeitel. Due to these events, the early twentieth century was embroiled in two World Wars and witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Fascism, embodied in Adolf Hitler.
Despite this failure, Frank continued to work for the Secret Service for another two years. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, however, the War Office realized the severity of the consequences of the failed Titanic mission and could no longer ignore it. The Service fired Carlson as a scapegoat for the failure of the Titanic mission, though his severance letter states that her supervisor Penny Pringle testified that she considered him a loyal agent. Frank was left destitute, without pay off or pension provided.
For the next 30 years, Carlson led a broken life, and made a hobby of fixing old watches and clocks. He traveled on the Hindenburg's fateful voyage in 1937. By April 1942, Carlson is a broken old man, struggling to pay rent in a run down East London apartment and being threatened by his landlady of eviction onto the streets.
Surrounded by various artifacts and remnants from that fateful mission, he often thinks back to that night 30 years previous and wonders if there was anything that he could have done in order to change history. One day, as he is pondering those same thoughts yet again, a German air raid bombs the area of Carlson's apartment. A bomb is dropped on right on top of his apartment, but instead of killing him it propels him back in time to the Titanic. Carlson is returned to the evening of April 14th, 1912, and has been given a second chance to alter history.
Second Mission[]
Now in 1912, Carlson has a second chance to complete his mission. Millions of lives are at stake and the responsibility is Carlson's burden. Depending on how he completes his missions he will change history again.
There are a number of outcomes in the game. The most favourable being that the painting, the Rubaiyat, the real necklace, and Willi von Haderlitz's notebook all leave the Titanic with Carlson.
The Perfect Ending can be considered as the storyline, where a favourable ending is desired.
London 1942 - Peace or.....?[]
- Main article: Possible Outcomes (from Titanic: Adventure Out of Time)
Back in his London apartment, Carlson will examine his "Memories" book on the shelf to see what he has managed to change in history. The first page, a newspaper article published about the Titanic sinking, obviously does not change regardless of how well you did in the game.
The following pages detail the key items from the mission, and Carlson will narrate what happened to them and what the consequences of their acquisition/loss have had on history. If all four key items - the Rubaiyat, painting, real necklace and the notebook have been saved from the ship, the best outcome will be achieved whereby both World Wars are averted, and the Bolshevik revolution was prevented thus resulting in world peace.
Coincidentally, saving none of the items is actually the second-best ending, because saving some of the items but not others results in disastrous scenarios whereby either Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia achieve world domination and conquer Britain. If only the First World War is prevented, by saving the Rubaiyat and the necklace, the Nazis are able to develop a Nuclear weapon, which they drop on London. The Soviet or Nazi take-over of Europe are the most common endings.
After looking through the memory book in the perfect ending, the picture of the life preserver in the sea will change to a cheerful picture of sailing boats and the sun will shine in through the window, a homage to Frank's success.
Note[]
Due to various issues with the passenger lists that have been presented[1] it is unclear if Frank Carlson really existed or if he is the result of mangled information on Frans Olof Carlsson.
References[]
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