On April 15, 1912, a lifeboat carrying survivors from the sinking Titanic approached the RMS Carpathia. The RMS Titanic had struck an iceberg and sank, leaving around 2,200 people on board. Only about 700 individuals managed to board the lifeboats. The survivors, stranded in the dark and frigid Atlantic, waited anxiously for rescue. After the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves at approximately 2:20 a.m., survivors endured a harrowing hour and a half before the RMS Carpathia arrived to their aid around 4 a.m. Moving everyone from the lifeboats to the ship took an additional 4 ½ hours. These images capture the rescue operation that saved a fraction of the Titanic’s passengers. The Titanic, a British passenger liner operated by White Star Line, was en route from Southampton, England, to New York City when it met its tragic fate. Just before 11:40 p.m. on April 14, crew members spotted an iceberg, but efforts to avoid a collision were unsuccessful. The iceberg punctured the ship’s hull, causing it to sink rapidly. The Titanic’s lights went out, and it broke into two pieces before disappearing into the ocean. Amid the chaos, only about 700 people were able to escape on lifeboats.
Twenty lifeboats were available on the Titanic, exceeding the required number for a ship of that size. However, these lifeboats could only accommodate around half of the 1,178 people on board, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine in 2017. Priority was given to women and children to board the lifeboats, and some boats were launched below their full capacity due to fears of overloading or delays in coaxing passengers, according to “Titanic: A Night Remembered.”
Initially, passengers remained calm as the ship sank, but the atmosphere changed as more people gathered on the upper decks where the lifeboats were located, as recounted by a survivor to the BBC in 1979. Unfortunately, most of the lifeboats did not return to rescue those who ended up in the water.
There were concerns among the lifeboat passengers about being sucked under by the sinking ship or overwhelmed by desperate swimmers. Emily Borie Ryerson’s lifeboat did return to pick up survivors, primarily crew members, during a senate inquiry into the tragedy.
The SS Californian was in close proximity to the Titanic when it sank, but its radio was turned off for the night. Mistaking the distress flares from the Titanic as routine signals, the Californian did not come to the rescue. In contrast, the RMS Carpathia responded to the distress call and changed course to offer assistance.
Harold Cottam, the 21-year-old wireless operator on the Carpathia, was about to go to sleep when he intercepted distress transmissions intended for the Titanic. He quickly informed Captain Arthur Rostron, who promptly directed the Carpathia to the sinking Titanic. As the Carpathia neared, they could hear the Titanic’s final distress calls over the wireless.
Captain Rostron prepared the Carpathia for survivors by stationing doctors in dining rooms with supplies, as detailed in the US Senate’s report on the disaster. The crew of the Carpathia acted swiftly to aid the survivors of the Titanic.
The saloons on board the Carpathia provided coffee, tea, soup, and blankets for the survivors rescued from the Titanic. Upon their arrival, the chief steward and pursers recorded their names for telegraphing. The Carpathia arrived around 4 a.m. and began the rescue operation, taking over four hours to pick up all survivors from the lifeboats. By 8:30 a.m., the final Titanic survivors had boarded the Carpathia. The crew discovered and buried four bodies in the sea and lifeboats. Captain Rostron directed the nearby Californian to search for additional survivors.
Passengers on the Carpathia offered comfort to the survivors, with many sacrificing their beds. Titanic survivor Archibald Gracie praised the Carpathia passengers for their kindness. While doctors tended to injuries, women and children mourned the loss of loved ones. Rather than heading to Halifax, the Carpathia returned to New York City. Concerned individuals sought information at the White Star Line office, amid rumors of withheld details about the disaster.
After a delay due to bad weather, the Carpathia eventually arrived in New York. Survivors organized a committee, led by Margaret Brown, to support fellow passengers. The committee raised funds to express gratitude to the Carpathia crew and provided essential items to survivors. Reporters on tugboats approached the Carpathia as it neared New York, interviewing survivors like Carlos Hurd of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Rostron restricted telegraph use on the voyage back.
The RMS Carpathia arrived at Pier 54 in New York on April 18, around 9:15 a.m., having departed from the same dock just a week before. Crowds eagerly awaited the arrival of the Titanic survivors, with families hoping to reunite with their loved ones. Numerous journalists were present, some offering money for interviews through megaphones, while others captured the scene as over 700 survivors disembarked from the ship. Among the survivors were six Chinese passengers who, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, were not permitted to stay in the U.S. They were among the few who survived but were immediately turned away upon arrival. The Carpathia’s crew also returned Titanic’s lifeboats to the White Star Line before docking, a significant change prompted by the tragedy to ensure that all passenger liners had enough lifeboats for everyone on board. Following the aftermath, Halifax became the main port for recovering bodies from the wreckage, with three ships retrieving over 300 bodies, a process that saw many victims laid to rest in Halifax. Captain Arthur Rostron, who led the Carpathia rescue mission, received a Congressional Gold Medal for his valiant efforts. Despite his reluctance to speak publicly about the rescue, Rostron documented his experiences in the book “Home from the Sea.” This article was originally published in April 2020 and updated in April 2025.
