On 15 July 1918, Carpathia departed from Liverpool in a convoy bound for Boston, carrying 57 passengers (36 saloon class and 21 steerage) and 166 crew. The convoy travelled on a zig-zag course along with an escort in accordance with procedures against submarine attacks. [39] The escort left the convoy early in the morning of 17 July, [40] and the convoy was cut in half. The Carpathia continued west along with six other ships, and as the largest ship in the convoy, she assumed the role of the commodore ship. Three and a half hours later, at 9:15 a.m., while sailing in the Southwest Approaches, a torpedo was sighted approaching on her port side. The engines were thrown in full-astern and the helm was turned hard-a-starboard, but it was too late to avoid the torpedo. [39] The Carpathia was torpedoed near the No. 3 hatch on the port side by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM U-55, followed by a second which penetrated the engine room, killing three firemen and two trimmers, and effectively disabling her ability to escape, as the engines were rendered inoperable by the second torpedo impact. [41] The explosion severely damaged the Carpathia's electrical gear, including the wireless radio apparatus, as well as two of the ship's lifeboats. [39] As a result, Captain William Prothero, in command of the Carpathia since 1916, signalled the other ships in the convoy to send out wireless messages by use of flags. He then had rockets fired to attract the attention of nearby patrol boats. The remaining convoy steamed away at full speed to elude the submarine. [39]
As the Carpathia began to settle by the head and list to port, Prothero gave the order to abandon ship. All passengers and the surviving crew members boarded the 11 lifeboats as the Carpathia sank. [41] There were 218 survivors of the 223 aboard. [41] As the passengers and crew disembarked, Prothero, the chief officer, first and second officers and the gunners remained on the sinking ship, seeing to it that all the confidential books and documents were thrown overboard. The captain then signalled one of the lifeboats to come alongside, and he and the remaining crew members abandoned their ship. [39] U-55 surfaced and fired a third torpedo into the ship near the gunner's rooms, resulting in a massive explosion that doomed the Carpathia. [41] U-55 started approaching the lifeboats when the Azalea-class sloop HMS Snowdrop arrived on the scene and drove away the submarine with gunfire before picking up the survivors from the Carpathia around 1:00 p.m. The Snowdrop arrived back in Liverpool with the survivors on the evening of 18 July.
The Carpathia sank at 11:00 a.m. at a position recorded by the Snowdrop as 49°25′N10°25′W / 49.417°N 10.417°W , about 1 hour and 45 minutes after the torpedo strike, and approximately 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet. At the time of her sinking, the Carpathia was the fifth Cunard steamship sunk in as many weeks, the others being the Ascania, the Ausonia, the Dwinsk and the Valentia, leaving only five Cunarders afloat from the large pre-war fleet. [41]
On 9 September 1999, the Reuters and AP wire services reported that Argosy International Ltd., headed by Graham Jessop, son of the undersea explorer Keith Jessop, and sponsored by the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), had discovered the RMS Carpathia's wreck in 600 ft (180 m) of water, 185 mi (298 km) west of Land's End. [42] Adverse weather conditions forced his ship to abandon the position before Jessop could verify the discovery using underwater cameras. However, when he returned to the location, the wreck was determined to be the Hamburg-America Line's Isis, sunk on 8 November 1936. [43]
In 2000, the American author and diver Clive Cussler announced that his organisation, NUMA, had found the true wreck of the Carpathia in the spring of that year, [44] [45] at a depth of 500 ft (150 m). [46] It was found that the Carpathia landed upright on the seabed. NUMA gave the approximate location of the wreck as 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet, Ireland. [47]
The wreck of the Carpathia is owned by Premier Exhibitions Inc., formerly RMS Titanic Inc., which plans to recover objects from the wreck. [46]
RMS Olympic was a British ocean liner and the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Olympic had a career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935, in contrast to her short-lived sister ships, Titanic and Britannic. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable", and during which she rammed and sank the U-boat U-103. She returned to civilian service after the war, and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable. Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap on 12 April 1935 which was completed in 1937.
SS Californian was a British Leyland Line steamship. She is thought to be the only ship in sight of the Titanic, or at least her rockets, during that ship's sinking. The crew took no action to assist. The United States Senate inquiry and British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking both concluded that the Californian could have saved many or all of the lives that were lost, had a prompt response been mounted to the Titanic's distress rockets. The U.S. Senate inquiry was particularly critical of the vessel's captain, Stanley Lord, calling his inaction during the disaster "reprehensible".
Harold Sydney Bride was a British merchant seaman and the junior wireless officer on the ocean liner RMS Titanic during her ill-fated maiden voyage.
RMS Republic was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, and lost at sea in a collision in 1909 while sailing for the White Star Line. The ship was equipped with a new Marconi wireless telegraphy transmitter, and issued a CQD distress call, resulting in the saving of around 1,500 lives. Known as the "Millionaires' Ship" because of the number of wealthy Americans who traveled by her, she was described as a "palatial liner" and was the flagship of White Star Line's Boston service. This was the first important marine rescue made possible by radio, and brought worldwide attention to this new technology.
S.O.S. Titanic is a 1979 drama disaster television movie that depicts the doomed 1912 maiden voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in first, second and third class. The script was written by James Costigan and directed by William Hale. It is the first Titanic film to be filmed and released in colour.
Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, KBE, RD was a British merchant seaman and a seagoing officer for the Cunard Line. He is best known as the captain of the ocean liner RMS Carpathia, when it rescued the survivors from the RMS Titanic after the ship sank in 1912 in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.
A Night to Remember is a 1958 British historical disaster docudrama film based on the eponymous 1955 book by Walter Lord. The film and book recount the final night of RMS Titanic, which sank on her maiden voyage after she struck an iceberg in 1912. Adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Ward Baker, the film stars Kenneth More as the ship's Second Officer Charles Lightoller and features Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum and Tucker McGuire. It was filmed in the United Kingdom and tells the story of the sinking, portraying the main incidents and players in a documentary-style fashion with considerable attention to detail. The production team, supervised by producer William MacQuitty used blueprints of the ship to create authentic sets, while Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall and ex-Cunard Commodore Harry Grattidge worked as technical advisors on the film. Its estimated budget of up to £600,000 was exceptional and made it the most expensive film ever made in Britain up to that time. The film's score was written by William Alwyn.
Harold Thomas Cottam was a British wireless operator on the RMS Carpathia who fortuitously happened to receive the distress call from the sinking RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. Cottam's decision to awaken Captain Arthur Henry Rostron and relay Titanic's message in spite of the scepticism of the officer on watch allowed Carpathia to arrive at the scene hours before any other ship and is "credited with saving hundreds of lives." He was a personal friend of the Titanic's wireless operators Harold Bride and Jack Phillips.
Mount Temple was a passenger cargo steamship built in 1901 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company of Newcastle for Elder, Dempster & Co Ltd of Liverpool to operate as part of its Beaver Line. The ship was shortly afterwards acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway. She was one of the first vessels to respond to the distress signals of RMS Titanic in 1912.
RMS Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic was four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City, with an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 on 14 April. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 ship's time on 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
The Olympic-class ocean liners were a trio of British ocean liners built by the Harland & Wolff shipyard for the White Star Line during the early 20th century, named Olympic (1911), Titanic (1912) and Britannic (1914). All three were designated to be the largest as well as most luxurious liners of the era, devised to provide White Star an advantage as regards to size and luxury in the transatlantic passenger trade.
RMS Ivernia was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by the company C. S. Swan & Hunter of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and launched in 1899. The Ivernia was one of Cunard's intermediate ships, that catered to the vast immigrant trade. Like her sisters, she saw military service during World War I, and was sunk in 1917 after being struck by a torpedo.
RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died, making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by the White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture.
Sir James Gordon Partridge Bisset, CBE, RD was a British merchant sea captain who served as Commodore of the Cunard White Star Line (1944–47). He documented his fifty-year sea career in a three volume autobiography: Sail Ho! My Early Years at Sea (1958); Tramps and Ladies – My Early Years in Steamers (1959) and Commodore – War, Peace and Big Ships (1961). In addition, Bisset authored Lifeboat Efficiency (1924) which became the primary text used by the British Merchant Marine until the Second World War for instructing merchant seaman in lifeboat utilization and handling, and Ship Ahoy ! : Nautical Notes for Ocean Travellers (c.1930), a treatise on shipboard operations for the edification of passengers. He served in or commanded Cunard liners including Carpathia, Caronia, Franconia, Mauretania, Aquitania, Berengaria, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
Joseph Zupicich was a crewmember on the RMS Carpathia when RMS Titanic survivors boarded the liner after being rescued on April 15, 1912 from lifeboats by the Carpathia crew.
Titanic Lifeboat No. 1 was a lifeboat from the steamship Titanic. It was the fifth boat launched to sea, over an hour after the liner collided with an iceberg and began sinking on 14 April 1912. With a capacity of 40 people, it was launched with only 12 aboard, the fewest to escape in any one boat that night.
Lifeboats played a crucial role during the sinking of the Titanic on 14–15 April 1912. The ship had 20 lifeboats that, in total, could accommodate 1,178 people, a little over half of the 2,209 on board the night it sank.
The sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 resulted in an inquiry by the British Wreck Commissioner on behalf of the British Board of Trade. The inquiry was overseen by High Court judge John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey, and was held in London from 2 May to 3 July 1912. The hearings took place mainly at the London Scottish Drill Hall, at 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1.
RMS Pannonia was a transatlantic Cunard Liner that was built in Scotland in 1902 and scrapped in Germany in 1922.
Árpád Lengyel, né Árpád Weisz was a Hungarian physician, and ship's medical officer of the RMS Carpathia at the time of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. He played a key role in the salvage operation, welcoming the survivors on board the Carpathia.
49°31′15.9672″N10°39′4.1616″W / 49.521102000°N 10.651156000°W