"Junkie"

“And now, suddenly, he has come into possession of $30,000,000*, nearly half his father’s great estate…He must decide whether he will follow in the footsteps of his father or return to his life of gentleman farmer…A few week’s before the death of his father, young Julius celebrated his twenty-fourth birthday. He is of a retiring nature, never seeks the limelight, dresses plainly and participates little in social affairs…Young Julius has spent most of his time in Cincinnati since graduating from Yale University. He also attended Franklin School in this city and a private school in Connecticut before he went to Yale. He attends services every Sunday at the Unitarian Church in Avondale.”

--Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune, January 2, 1925



“The twin-screw Diesel yacht Camargo, built for Julius Fleischmann of Cincinnati, at a cost of $625,000**, and classed by its designers, Henry J. Gielow, Inc. of New York, as the largest and most costly pleasure craft to be launched in American waters this year, will slide down the ways at the Lawley Yards at Neponset, Boston, Mass., tomorrow morning at 9:30 o’clock…The Camargo is the first clipper stem, straight Diesel ship to be built in this country. Her dimensions are: Length over all, 225 feet; beam, 32 feet, and draught, 14 feet. The Camargo, which has been built at the yards of the George Lawley & Son Corporation at Neponset, is constructed entirely of steel and is powered with two 800-horse-power Bessemer Diesel motors capable of driving her at a speed of fourteen knots an hour…Stateroom accommodations will be provided for fourteen guests. There will be a large dining salon, a living room, smoking room and owner’s private gymnasium with bath.”

--Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune, June 15, 1928

“The 225-foot Diesel yacht, Camargo, will leave New York October 8 bound for Bermuda, the first stop in a two-year cruise around the world. The vessel, owned by Julius Fleischmann, of Cincinnati, is now being fitted out in the Tebo Yacht Basin, Brooklyn…The vessel will sail from Bermuda through the Panama Canal, will visit all of the islands in the South Pacific group from Galapagos to Dutch East Guinea and will cruise in Japanese waters during the winter. From there Camargo will sail through the Red Sea to the Mediteranean [sic] until late fall and will put up for a few months awaiting warmer weather, when she will sail north along the coast of the Continent as far as North Cape.
Early in the fall of 1934 the yacht will start home, arriving in New York again two years from now.”

--Cincinnati Enquirer, September 26, 1931



“Cocos Island is an uninhabited spot of jungle in the Pacific, fabled rendezvous of pirates, 500 mi. southwest of Panama. There last week paused the yacht Camargo, carrying Julius Fleischmann, yeast scion, his wife & two small children and three friends on a two-year cruise of the world. To their astonishment the Fleischmann party found signs of life ashore, discovered the abandoned camp of three shipwrecked sailors whose yawl West Wind sailed from San Diego last December. A note stated that the castaways had struck into the interior 48 hr. earlier in search of food because they had exhausted the supply of coconuts near the beach, and that they would return about Nov. 4. The Camargo circled the island, firing her one-pound gun, blowing her whistle, got no response from shore. Then Mr. Fleischmann radioed the U. S. naval base at Balboa, C. Z., whence the gunboat Sacramento was despatched to Cocos Island with medical supplies, a powerful searchlight, equipment for a hazardous search of the island's trackless interior. From Cocos Island the Fleischmann yacht is bound for the Galapagos, Marquezas, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Samoa, Suva, Solomon Islands, New Britain, New Guinea, Timor, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Manila, Bangkok (and a visit to King Prajadhipok), and west via the Arabian Sea and the Suez Canal. In some of the islands Julius Fleischmann will act as a special representative of the U. S. Department of Commerce, drumming up trade and setting an example of usefulness to other yacht-cruisers.”

TIME, People In the News, November 2, 1931


November 1931 magazine and rescued men, (L-R) Gordon Brawner, Springfield, Ill; Paul Stashwick of Huron, S.D., and Earl Palliser of San Diego, Cal.

“A rescue expedition led by Julius Fleischmann, of Cincinnati, yesterday began a trek into the unexplored bush country of the Island of Cocos in the South Seas, according to a radiogram received by Mr. Fleischmann’s secretary last night….The Fleischmann party has among its members men who are qualified for an expedition of the type which was started yesterday. Included in the group is a member of former William Beebe expeditions and a prominent Washington physician…Those who sailed with the Camargo were: Mr. and Mrs. Julius Fleischmann, the boy, Charles (“Skipper”) Fleischmann III; the baby, Dornette Louise Fleischmann; Mr. Berg, photographer and explorer; Dr. Robert Ramsdell, Washington, D.C.; Thomas Keck, Coronado, Calif, lifelong friend of Mr. Fleischmann, and Miss Katherine Rohan, Racine, Wis., classmate of Mrs. Fleischmann at Smith College…The wire which was received from Mr. Fleischmann last night follows:

FOUND CAMP THREE SURVIVORS OF YAWL WESTWIND OF SAN DIEGO WRECKED COCOS ISLAND APRIL FIFTEENTH STOP FOUND NOTE STATING THEY LEFT FOR INTERIOR OF ISLAND YESTERDAY STOP AM SEARCHING.

The rest of the wire instructed his secretary, Miss Alice McNamara, to notify organizations that would be interested in the search.”

--Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1931

“The palatial yacht of Julius Fleischmann, Cincinnati capitalist, on which he made several trips around the world and which figured in a sensational rescue of three men marooned on a South Sea Island in 1931, has been sold, it was disclosed in Cincinnati Tuesday.
The yacht “Camargo” was purchased by General Rafael Trujillo Molina, former president of Dominican Republic, a report from the Maritime Commission stated.”

--Cincinnati Times-Star, August 15, 1939


Julius Fleischmann (L) at the Camargo IV christening, Aalsmeer, Holland, 1961

“In 1928 she embarked with her husband and two small children around the world on the 225 foot yacht, Camargo 1, carrying the flag of the New York Yacht Club. While in the South Pacific, they created the maps and descriptions used by the U.S. government in the attacks on many of the Japanese held islands in World War II.”

--Washington Post, obituary, Dorette Kruse Fleischmann, March 4, 1994

“A wealthy, shadowy cold war operative named Julius "Junkie" Fleischmann… was a major player in the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom, which helped to launch and sustain the London-based intellectual journal Encounter in 1953. In The Cultural Cold War, [Francis] Stonor Saunders refers to him as "the CIA's most significant single front-man."

--The Nation, book review ‘George Being George’, February, 2009

*$30,000,000 equals $369,900,398.68 in 2010 dollars
**$625,000 is equal to $7,880,178.01 in 2010 dollars
Images: Cincinnati Public Library Newspaper Archive, De Vries Shipbuilding, 'Footsteps in the Sea', Julius Fleischmann, 1935, TIME.com