Sinking of the RMS Carpathia

The Sinking of the RMS Carpathia was an event that happened on July 17^th, 1918, four months before the end of World War I. Carpathia was torpedoed by SM U-55, on the orders of Wilhelm Werner. Five people were killed, three of which were firemen, and the other two being trimmers.

Background

On 15 July 1918, the Carpathia departed from Liverpool in a convoy bound for Boston, carrying 57 passengers (36 saloon class and 21 steerage) and 166 crew. The convoy travelled on a zig-zag course along with an escort in accordance with procedures against submarine attacks. The escort left the convoy early in the morning of 17 July, and the convoy was cut in half. The Carpathia continued west along with six other ships, and as the largest ship in the convoy, she assumed the role of the commodore ship.

Sinking

Three and a half hours later, at 9:15 A.M., while sailing in the Southwest Approaches, a torpedo was sighted approaching on her port side. The engines were thrown in full-astern and the helm was turned hard-a-starboard, but it was too late to avoid the torpedo. The Carpathia was torpedoed near the No. 3 hatch on the port side by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM U-55, followed by a second which penetrated the engine room, killing three firemen and two trimmers, and effectively disabling her ability to escape, as the engines were rendered inoperable by the second torpedo impact. The explosion severely damaged the Carpathia's electrical gear, including the wireless radio apparatus, as well as two of the ship's lifeboats. As a result, Captain William Prothero, in command of the Carpathia since 1916, signalled the other ships in the convoy to send out wireless messages by use of flags. He then had rockets fired to attract the attention of nearby patrol boats. The remaining convoy steamed away at full speed to elude the submarine.

As the Carpathia began to settle by the head and list to port, Prothero gave the order to abandon ship. All passengers and the surviving crew members boarded the 11 lifeboats as the Carpathia sank. There were 218 survivors out of the 223 aboard. As the passengers and crew disembarked, Prothero, the chief officer, first and second officers and the gunners remained on the sinking ship, seeing to it that all the confidential books and documents were thrown overboard. The captain then signalled one of the lifeboats to come alongside, and he and the remaining crew members abandoned their ship. U-55 surfaced and fired a third torpedo into the ship near the gunner's rooms, resulting in a massive explosion that doomed the Carpathia. U-55 started approaching the lifeboats when the Azalea-class sloop HMS Snowdrop arrived on the scene and drove away the submarine with gunfire before picking up the survivors from the Carpathia around 1:00 P.M. The Snowdrop arrived back in Liverpool with the survivors on the evening of 18 July.

The Carpathia sank at 11:00 A.M. at a position recorded by the Snowdrop as 49°25′N 10°25′W, about 1 hour and 45 minutes after the torpedo strike, and approximately 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet. At the time of her sinking, the Carpathia was the fifth Cunard steamship sunk in as many weeks, the others being the Ascania, the Ausonia, the Dwinsk and the Valentia, leaving only five Cunarders afloat from the large pre-war fleet.

Aftermath

After the war, Wilhelm Werner, the man who ordered the torpedoing of Carpathia, was accused of war crimes in World War I including Carpathia, but these charges were eventually dropped in March of 1926. He eventually went on to become a leader of the SS during World War II.

On 9 September 1999, Argosy International Ltd., headed by Graham Jessop, son of the undersea explorer Keith Jessop, and sponsored by the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), discovered what was then thought to be RMS Carpathia's wreck in 600 ft (180 m) of water, 185 mi (298 km) west of Land's End. This was according to a report by the Reuters and AP wire services. Adverse weather conditions forced his ship to abandon the position before Jessop could verify the discovery using underwater cameras. However, when he returned to the location, the wreck was determined to be the Hamburg-America Line's Isis, sunk on 8 November 1936.

In 2000, NUMA, an organisation owned by American author and diver Clive Cussler, found the true wreck of the Carpathia in the spring of that year, at a depth of 500 ft (150 m). It was also found that the Carpathia landed upright on the seabed. NUMA gave the approximate location of the wreck as 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet, Ireland. At an unknown date, the wreck was purchased by Premier Exhibitions Inc., formerly RMS Titanic Inc., which plans to recover objects from the wreck, although it is not known when.