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Hill, Mike

  Vol. XVII, Spring 2013  •  1
Dangers of the Night: The Carpathia’s Valiant Rescue 
of the Titanic Survivors
Mike Hill
“Although I was running a risk with my own ship 
and my own passengers, I also had to consider 
what I was going for... I had to consider the lives 
of others.”
                                – Sir Arthur Henry Rostron
 A hazy mist covered the glassy surface 
of the Atlantic Ocean. The sea was calm, the 
air was bitterly frigid, and small chunks of ice 
floated serenely in the inky blackness of the night. 
Suddenly, disturbing this tranquil scene, came a 
ship. This vessel, a steamer, cut through the sea at 
a breakneck pace, its frame creaking and groaning 
as water splashed away from its charging bow. As 
the ship sailed determinedly on a path that took it 
steadily northward, its crew sighted an iceberg dead 
ahead, mirrored in the light of a shining star.1 Never 
stopping to break pace, the ship deftly dodged the 
deadly fragment of Arctic debris. Shortly thereafter, 
another iceberg appeared out of the darkness, and 
the Carpathia once again maneuvered masterfully 
around the ice, her hull straining from the stress. The 
ship continued to bob and weave its way through 
a veritable minefield of ice, never slowing nor 
changing its audacious course. The early morning 
hours of April 15th, 1912, are often remembered 
as the hours in which the Titanic foundered after 
striking a massive tower of ice; few, however, 
remember them as the hours in which the Carpathia 
and her crew heroically pushed their ship above and 
beyond its limits in a desperate attempt to reach the 
Titanic in time to save her passengers and crew from 
a terrible fate.
 When the Carpathia’s wireless operator first 
received the Titanic’s distress call, the ship’s captain, 
Arthur Rostron, had already retired for the night. 
Captain Rostron, who was a bit of a “stickler for 
1 Walter Lord, A Night to Remember (New York: Henry Holt and 
Company, 1955), 143. 
discipline,”2 was shocked when his first officer 
and wireless operator burst into his quarters with 
the news that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and 
required urgent assistance. To his credit, Captain 
Rostron did not hesitate; still half asleep, he began 
to take action, leaping out of bed and ordering that 
his ship should immediately prepare to hurry to the 
aid of the Titanic. “I... sent for the chief engineer,” he 
later said, and “in the meantime I was dressing and 
seeing the ship put on her course. The chief engineer 
came up. I told him to call another watch of stokers 
and make all possible speed to the Titanic, as she 
was in trouble.”3 Unfortunately, the Carpathia was 
58 miles away from the last coordinates that the 
Titanic had given, and at her usual speed of 14 knots, 
it would take her four hours to reach the larger 
vessel. The Titanic would not last that long.4  
 Facing a race against time he knew he could 
not win, Captain Rostron chose to run anyway; the 
stokers below decks shoveled coal into the boilers 
at a breakneck pace, and everything else, including 
the ship’s heating, was neglected. Every ounce of 
steam the old vessel could produce was thrown 
into the engines in a frantic dash to reach the Titanic 
in time.5 The ship started to move north, rapidly 
picking up speed, accelerating from 14 to 17 knots. 
This was a pace that no one had dared to dream the 
Carpathia could make.6 Captain Rostron, meanwhile, 
issued several more orders. Among them were the 
following commands: that “each doctor... have 
supplies of restoratives, stimulants, and everything 
2 Lord, Night, 138.
3 Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, “Titanic” 
Disaster: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, 
United States Senate, Sixty-Second Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to 
S. Res. 283, Directing the Committee on Commerce to Investigate the Causes 
Leading to the Wreck of the White Star Liner “Titanic” 62nd Cong., 2nd sess., 
1912, S. Rep 726, 20.
4 Lord, Night, 138.
5 Lord, Night, 138.
6 Lord, Night, 140. According to Lord, “Everyone was wild with 
excitement, and the Carpathia herself trembled all over. A sailor later 
remarked that ‘the old boat was an excited as any of us.’”
2  •  The Wittenberg History Journal
to hand for immediate needs of probably wounded 
or sick;” that “all spare berths in steerage... be 
utilized for Titanic’s passengers;” that “heaving 
lines [be] distributed along the ship’s sides for boat 
ropes or to help the people up;” and that “company 
rockets [were] to be fired at 2:45 a.m. and every 
quarter of an hour after to reassure [the] Titanic.”7 
 The United States Senate Committee that later 
investigated the Titanic disaster believed “the course 
followed by Captain Rostron of the Carpathia [was] 
deserving of the highest praise and [was] worthy of 
especial recognition. Captain Rostron fully realized 
all the risk involved... and notwithstanding such risk 
pushed his ship at her very highest limit of speed 
through the many dangers of the night.”8 Despite 
7 Senate Committee on Commerce, “Titanic” Disaster: Report of the 
Committee on Commerce of the United States Senate Pursuant to S. Res. 283 
Directing the Committee on Commerce to Investigate the Causes Leading to the 
Wreck of the White Star Liner “Titanic,” 62nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1912, S. Rep. 
806,  15.
8 Committee on Commerce, Titanic Disaster: Report, 15.
his exhaustive efforts, Captain Rostron had taken on 
a Sisyphean task; he was unable to win his desperate 
race against time, and the Titanic slipped into the 
ocean approximately an hour and a half before the 
Carpathia arrived on scene. However, as a direct 
result of Captain Rostron’s courageous actions, the 
lives of the 706 survivors were spared. His crew 
literally pulled several frostbitten victims out of their 
lifeboats, snatching them away from the clutches of 
death. For these actions—for showing such courage 
in the face of adversity—Captain Rostron earned the 
eternal, heartfelt gratitude of the forlorn souls that 
his actions saved on that tragic April night.
Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. New York: Henry Holt 
and Company, 1955.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce. 
“Titanic” Disaster: Report of the Committee on  
Commerce of the United States Senate Pursuant to S. Res. 
283 Directing the Committee on  Commerce to Investigate 
the Causes Leading to the Wreck of the White Star Liner 
“Titanic.” 62nd  Cong., 2nd sess., 1912. S. Rep 806.
Works Cited
U.S. Congress. Senate. Subcommittee of the Committee 
on Commerce. “Titanic” Disaster: Hearings before a 
Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, United States 
Senate, Sixty-Second Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to 
S. Res. 283, Directing the Committee on Commerce to  
Investigate the Causes Leading to the Wreck of the White 
Star Liner “Titanic.” 62nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1912. 


Dangers of the Night: The Carpathia’s Valiant Rescue  of the Titanic Survivors

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