Chase Stobbe

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Chase Stobbe

Cunard’s RMS Carpathia. Finished in 1902, the Carpathia was somewhat of a low profile ship of the british shipping company. She was designed for the immigrant trade and, as such, neither did she have an opulent interior nor was she designed to raech high speeds. Ships like the Carpathia were extremely popular amongst shipping companies in the Belle Epoque since their operational costs were very low and there was a huge demand for cheap transatlantic crossings by thousands of european immigrants, which were hoping to start a new life in America. The Carapathia operated on various routes on the North Atlantic. In the last years before the war she connected New York with the Mediterranean, bringing american tourists to Europe and returning with immigrants to the US. She quickly gained a reputation as a stable and safe liner and was popular within her target group.

It was on one of her journeys from New York to the Mediterranean that the Carpathia gained international fame as the rescuer of the survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In my opinion both the bravery and effort of this act is often underrated, which is why I’d like to give a recount of what transcured on that fatidic evening on board this otherwise so undistinguished liner. In the late hours of April 14th 1912, the Carpathia’s wireless operator Harold Cottam was ending his shift after a long day of work. As it was the case whith most of the ships of this early days, the Carpathia only had one wireless operator, which meant that him going to bed would have made the Carpathia impossible to reach for the rest of the night. Considering this, it is really a miracle that Cottam decided to stay awake just for a few more minutes listening to the transmitter before going to bed. After he had noticed that the land - based wireless station of Cape Cod, Masachussetts, was trying to send messages to the Titanic, Cottam decided to get in touch with the White Star liner, asking why they weren’t answering. The Titanic’s wireless operator Jack Phillips had not answered any of Cape Cod’s messages because by then, around 12 pm, he had already received the order to send CQD (come quick danger) - messages. Once Cottam got through to him Phillips requested the Carpathias assistance. Opposed to what many of us today would think, receiving such a message in those days would not have meant a inmediate response. Many nautical officers distrusted the wireless and a messages like that must have sounded like a bad joke to many sailors. However Cottam believed Phillips. He believed him so much that he even decided to wake up the Carpathia’s captain, Arthur Rostron, although the officer in charge of the ship at that moment (who was the first one Cottam had gone to) tried to stop him after dismissing the Titanic’s distress call as some sort of prank. Initially Rostron was angry at his wireless operator, who had stormed his cabin in the middle of the night. However he believed Cottam and it was in this second that the Carpathia became a rescue ship. The outlook was not at all positive. The Carpathia was more or less 107 kilometers (or 65 miles) away from the Titanic’s position and her maximun speed was 14 knots, which meant that she would only arrive there in around three and a half hour. Time was precious, as Thomas Andrews, the Titanics builder who was on board the ill - fated liner, had given her no more than two hours to sink. Aware of the urgency of the situation, Rostron inmediatly gave orders for his ship to turn around and drive with full speed to the Titanics position. One should consider the risks involved by this decision. Steaming with full speed at night through the North Atlantic had been the reason of Titanic hitting the iceberg in the first place. Rostron also ordered the heating to be turned of to divert all the steam into the engines. This was also risky, since forcing the engines like this could cause a lot of damage. Nearly the whole crew was woken up: an extra shift of stokers were sent to increase the speed even more. Soon this efforts showed results: not only did the Carpathia reach her maximum speed of 14 knots, she even surpassed it, reaching 17 knots (!), a speed her constructors never would have dreamed she would be able to reach. Additional lookouts were sent to the ships bow to avoid iceberg’s. Many pessengers woke up and helped in any way they could to reconvert the public rooms of the Carpathia into dormitories for the survivors. Others helped the crew to make giant amounts of warm beverages and soups to warm up the survivors.  None of them complained (after all, rescueing the Titanics survivors could easily delay their travel plans fore weeks).   Navigating through waters infested with icebergs without lowering her speed, the Carpathia arrived at the last position the Titanic had sent at around 4 am, one and a half hour after the White Star liner had gone down. For the next five hours, the Carpathia picked up the more or less 700 survivors which had had the luck to get a place in one of the few lifeboats. By 9 am all survivors had been saved and were cared for by the Carpathias’s passengers and crew. Rostron now had to decide were he would disembark the passengers. Considering that the Carpathia was on her way to the Mediterranean, the cheapest option would have been the Azores. However, not only did he decide to go to America, he even turned down ports which were much closer to his position like Halifax and decided to set course for New York, the Titanic’s original destination. Steaming again at a more normal speed, the Carpathia was expected to arrive in New York two days later. Assisted by the Titanics junior wireless operator Harold Bride (Phillips had died during the sinking) Harold Cottam, who had not gone to bed for the past 36 hours, started to transmit the names of the survivors to the RMS Olympic (the Titanic’s sister ship, whose help had been categorically rejected by Rostron, who feared that the sight of the Titanics nearly identical sister would cause panic amongst the survivors) and the cruiser USS Chester. They did this in a orderly fashion, rejecting to answer any questions of the press and even of sitting US - president William H. Taft, whose close friend Archibald Butt had been on board the Titanic (and sadly didn’t survive the sinking as it turned out later). The Carpathia arrived at New York on April 18th 1912.

For his efforts, Rostron received a knighthood from king George V and the Congressional Gold Medal in the United States. His crew all received decorations as well. It is obviously true that most of the deaths on board the Titanic could have been avoided if she had carried enough lifeboats for all on board. However, many more would have died if there would not have been a ship and a crew, whose decidedness and courage became a real example for times to come.

The Carpathia was sunken by a german submarine on July 15th 1918, approximatly 190 kilometres (120 miles) off the southwest coast of Ireland. All crew and passengers survived.

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