Hi, Dave and Mike,
I hope you don't mind my dropping in here but I was just rereading the Sloper account myself - a very good friend of mine, Fiona Beckwith, sent me the 'Titanic' chapter of his book, "The Life and Times of Andrew Jackson Sloper", published in 1949 (Sorry, I don't have the publisher's name).
Also, unless I missed it, one of the reasons, if not the MAIN reason, the young 'Smith' killed himself is he was one of those unfortunates that had been accused of posing as a woman to leave the ship. Sloper, as you know, at the hands of a vindictive reporter, was reported in his newspaper to have donned such a disguise to avail himself of salvation. In his book, Sloper's plaintiff account of the stigma that must've attached itself to almost ALL male survivors of that catastrophe is amplified to the utmost by 'Smith's' suicide. Apparently, it had attached itself to Carter (named Dalton in the Sloper version) who escaped with Ismay in
collapsible C. (At one time, according to his grandson, this story ALSO was told on Cosmo Duff-Gordon, much to his grandson's amazement, since Cosmo was over 6 feet tall and would've made one suspicious lady).
Sadly, as far as identification, Sloper takes a bit of liberties with names and descriptions (in deference to surviving families) and, consequently, 'Smith', while probably his
Carpathia room mate, may NOT have been tall, handsome or blond.
Anyway, I thought I would 'flesh' out the story here for those who do not have access to the Sloper account in case someone may have more to this story.
Best regards,
Cook