In One Ear: Carpathia’s tale

Published 6:00 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

When the Titanic sent out an emergency signal on April 14, 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, it was the Cunard cruise liner Carpathia that took action, arriving on the scene about 1.5 hours after the Titanic sank on the 15th. They were able to rescue about 700 passengers from the water; over 1,500 perished.

Among those saved was pregnant newlywed Madeleine Astor, widow of John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the wreck. In September that year, she gave birth to John Jacob Astor VI (V was already taken).

After the dramatic rescue, medals abounded for the Carpathia’s captain and crew, and there was a great deal of celebrating the newly-famous ship.

In just a couple of years, however, World War I (1914-1918) broke out. Used for transporting troops, the Carpathia was painted a drab military grey. On July 18, 1918, the ship was torpedoed three times by a German submarine, and sank 120 miles west of the Fastnet Lighthouse, off the southern coast of Ireland. Of the 223 aboard, 218 survived.

But that isn’t the end of her story. The Carpathia was found in 2000, in 500 feet of water, sitting upright. It appears the salvage rights belong to, ironically enough, RMS Titanic Inc.