On the night of April 14, 1912, Carpathia received a distress signal from RMS Titanic. Despite being an estimated four hours away, Carpathia raced at top speed to rescue those onboard Titanic, risking the lives of its own passengers and crew as she raced through the icefield, saving 700 lives from the freezing Atlantic. This is the story of Carpathia's heroic actions on that fateful night.
A Bit of Background
RMS Carpathia began service on 5th May 1903, a member of Cunard's Ivernia-Class liners. The three Ivernia Class ships were the SS Ivernia, the Saxonia, and the Carpathia. Designed as transatlantic migrant ships, these ships were not the biggest or the best, rather, Cunard wanted to expand its fleet as much as possible in the wake of the emerging International Mercantile Marine Company, which had recently taken over White Star Line.
At 558 feet long, 64 feet wide and a gross-registered tonnage of 12,900, Carpathia was an intermediate liner, but the night of April 15th 1912 would seal her legacy forever.
An Unassuming Voyage
Carpathia began her journey across the Atlantic on 11th April 1912, bound from New York to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. Onboard were 240 crew members and 128 passengers. All was as usual until the night of April 14th. Harold Cottam was the wireless operator on shift, but he had missed the first distress signals from Titanic as he was on the bridge at the time. Although his shift ended at midnight, Cottam continued working, and had received messages from Cape Cod Massachusetts at 12:11am containing private messages from the Titanic. Unaware of Titanic's situation, he sent a message to Titanic to say that Carpathia had private traffic for them. At 12:25am, only a few minutes before he was about to retire to bed, Cottam received a response from Titanic, a distress signal, stating that Titanic had struck an iceberg and required immediate assistance.
Cottam initially took the message to the bridge, but officers were sceptical about the message. Not wanting to take any chances, Cottam decided to wake the ship's Captain, Arthur Henry Rostron, who gave the order to adjust course for Titanic's location.
In his testimony following Titanic's sinking, Rostron stated that Carpathia was approximately 58 nautical miles from Titanic's position (107km). With a maximum speed of just 14 knots, it would take up to four hours to reach the sinking liner.
Although Rostron knew that he was sending his ship full speed into an icefield, he ordered the ship's heating and hot water to be cut off in order to maximise steam available to the engines and placed extra lookouts on iceberg watch. Carpathia raced at a speed of 17 knots as a result.
Meanwhile, Rostron issued a number of orders to prepare his ship for the rescue, including the provision of extra accommodations and the conversion of dining rooms into makeshift hospitals.
In an icefield, the concern is not just large icebergs like the one which Titanic had struck, but much smaller blocks of ice, known as growlers. These were difficult to spot, especially in the dead of night, and striking them risked damage to the hull plates of a ship. However, for Carpathia and its captain, reaching Titanic before it was too late was the only goal. Despite spotting six large icebergs on the journey, Carpathia was able to avoid them all. Rostron later said, "I can only conclude another hand than mine was on the helm".
Carpathia reached Titanic's position at approximately 4:00am, over three and a half hours later. Sadly, by this time, Titanic had all but disappeared, and 1500 lives had already been taken with it.
The Rescue Operation
At 4:10am, the first lifeboat had been brought aboard, lifeboat no.2. For the next four and a half hours, Carpathia and its crew scoured the area, looking for lifeboats which had been launched into the cold Atlantic without a destination. By 9:00am, Carpathia had rescued 706 lives from the lifeboats.
Survivors were given blankets, drinks and food, and passengers onboard selflessly assisted by offering up their own accommodations, food and spare clothes.
Although en-route to Europe, Rostron decided, along with Bruce Ismay, to divert and take survivors to New York City, the destination of the ill-fated Titanic. Steaming at 14 knots, Carpathia arrived in New York on the evening of 18th April to heavy rain.
One of Titanic's lifeboats, shortly before the survivors were rescued by Carpathia
Survivors onboard Carpathia
Aftermath and Legacy
Officers were given medals for their service, and Captain Rostron was given a silver cup by Titanic survivor Margaret Brown. Rostron also received a knighthood from King George V, and a Congressional Gold Medal by President William Howard Taft.
Rostron went on to have a highly successful career, captaining SS Aulania during the First World War, and he later captained RMS Mauretania for a number of years. He also captained RMS Berengaria and became the Commodore of the Cunard fleet. He retired in 1931 and wrote a autobiography called 'Home From the Sea. He died on 4th November 1940, aged 71.
Carpathia would later go on to serve in the First World War, transporting American and Canadian forces in Europe. On 15th July 1918, Carpathia's own life would come to an end after she was struck by a torpedo from German Navy submarine, SM U-55, off County Cork. Her wreck remains intact, standing upright around 150m (500ft) deep.
Captain Arthur Rostron is presented with a trophy from Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, for his heroic efforts
The wreck of RMS Carpathia