A Brief History Of RMS Carpathia

The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia was constructed at the Swan & Hunter shipyard in Newcastle (North East England). Launched on 6th August, 1902, her maiden voyage, between Liverpool and New York/Boston (via Queenstown), was on 4th May, 1903. Until 1915, the vessel divided her time between a Liverpool/New York route (in Summer) and a Trieste/New York route (in Winter). The ship's trade on the latter route could only be helped by Cunard's position as the Hungarian Government's official emigration agent.

By 1911, both Cunard and White Star were running their 'express' liner services - employing their largest, fastest and most prestigious ships - from Southampton. Liverpool, the two companies' original home port, became the terminus for smaller, less opulent vessels like the Carpathia.

Saving The Titanic Survivors

On the night of 14th - 15th April, 1912, the Carpathia, under the command of Captain Arthur Rostron, received distress signals from R.M.S. Titanic; she steamed over 60 miles flat out through dangerous North Atlantic icefields. The Master and his officers were aware that they would not arrive before the stricken White Star leviathan sank - but, driven by the knowledge that people would be dying in the bitter cold,  they heroically pushed their ship beyond all its normal limits and risked collision with the ice. Carpathia picked up all the 705 people who survived in Titanic's lifeboats and afterwards transported them to New York.

In future updates, this section will be extended to tell the story of RMS Carpathia's role in the Titanic tragedy with enhanced contemporary photographs and detailed texts.  

World War 1

Southampton was deemed far more convenient for passengers starting out from London - but when World War I broke out, the White Star and Cunard companies switched their express services back to Liverpool in order to move their liners beyond the range of German U-boats. This ploy was not entirely sucessful - many ships (including liners) were attacked and sunk in The Irish Sea during the conflict - but Southampton was definitely much more vulnerable than the more northerly port. Even German coastal submarines could intercept vessels leaving Southampton waters.

At the onset of war, the Trieste service was suspended; Carpathia then used Piraeus (Greece) as her Mediterranean port until 1915 - when she worked the Liverpool-New York route until 17th July, 1918. On that day, 170 miles west of Bishop Rock, the liner was attacked by U55 *. She was hit by two torpedoes and then struck by a third whilst those on board were taking to the lifeboats. The Carpathia sank. Five crew members were killed; the remaining 223 crew and 57 passengers, were rescued by HMS Snowdrop.

* In 1919, U55 was handed over to the Imperial Japanese Navy and renamed O3. Her career as a IJN submarine was short-lived; she was partially dismantled in 1922. In 1923, she was briefly re-commissioned as Auxiliary Vessel No. 2538.