The Day in History:

RMS Carpathia Torpedoed by German Submarine (1918)

History

The RMS Carpathia was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at their Newcastle upon Tyne, England shipyard. She was launched on 6 August 1902 and began her sea trials on 22 April 1903 which ended on 25 April. Carpathia was 8,600 tons, 541 feet long (164 m) and 64.5 feet (18 m) in breadth.

Carpathia made her maiden voyage on 5 May 1903 from Liverpool, England to Boston, USA, and ran services between New York, Trieste and various Mediterranean ports.

Titanic disaster

Carpathia docked in New York following the rescue of Titanic "s survivorsCarpathia was sailing east from New York City bound for Gibraltar on the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912. Among her passengers were renowned American painter Colin Campbell Cooper, his wife Emma, journalist Lewis P. Skidmore, photographer Dr. Francis H. Blackmarr and Charles H. Marshall, whose three nieces were travelling aboard the Titanic.

Her wireless operator, Harold Cottam had missed previous messages from RMS Titanic, being on the bridge at the time. He received messages from Cape Race stating that they had private traffic for Titanic. He thought he would be helpful and sent a message to the Titanic stating that Cape Race had traffic for them. In reply he received a distress signal. Cottam awakened Captain Arthur Henry Rostron who immediately set a course at maximum speed to Titanic"s last known position, approximately 58 miles away. Rostron ordered the ship"s heating and hot water to be cut off, so the engines could feed on every ounce of steam. At 4 o"clock in the morning Carpathia arrived at the scene after working her way through dangerous ice fields. Carpathia was able to save 705 people.

Aftermath

Molly Brown (right) giving Captain Arthur Henry Rostron an award for his service in the rescue of the TitanicFor the rescue work, the crew of the Carpathia were awarded medals by the survivors. Crew members were awarded bronze medals, officers silver and Captain Rostron a silver cup and gold medal, presented by Molly Brown. Rostron was later a guest of President Taft at the White House and was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour the United States Congress could confer upon him.

Carpathia was part of a convoy when she was torpedoed on 17 July 1918 off the east coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-55. The Carpathia was listing to port and sinking bow first.[2] 157 passengers and the surviving crew were rescued by HMS Snowdrop the following day. The last sighting was at 02:45am, just as the stern section sank.

Finding and salvage works

On 9 September 1999 Reuters and AP wire services reported that Argosy International Ltd., headed by Graham Jessop, son of internationally known undersea explorer Keith Jessop, had found the wreck of the Carpathia on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean earlier that week, about 185 miles off the southwestern English coast. "She is in reasonably good condition for a wreck of that age," Jessop said. "She is in one piece, and she is upright."[3]

The next year American author and diver Clive Cussler announced that his organization, NUMA, had found the wreck in the Spring of 2000,[4][5] at a depth of 500ft.[6] After the submarine attack Carpathia rolled over and landed upside down on the sea floor. The wreck currently lies upside down off the coast of Ireland.

The current owner of the vessel is Premier Exhibitions Inc. (formerly RMS Titanic Inc.) who plans to recover objects from the wreck.[6] The same company owns the salvor-in-possession rights of the RMS Titanic whose artifacts are shown in worldwide exhibitions.

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