RMS Carpathia

The RMS Carpathia under way
History
United Kingdom
NameRMS Carpathia
NamesakeCarpathian Mountain Range
OwnerCunard Line
Port of registryLiverpool
Route
  • Transatlantic: Liverpool–Queenstown–Boston
  • Transferred to Liverpool–Queenstown–New York summers
  • Trieste–Fiume–New York winters
BuilderC.S. Swan & Hunter, Wallsend, England [1]
Yard number274
Laid down10 September 1901
Launched6 August 1902
CompletedFebruary 1903
Maiden voyage5 May 1903
In service1903–1918
Out of service17 July 1918
Identification
FateSunk by three torpedoes from SM U-55 on 17 July 1918
NotesFamous for rescuing more than 700 passengers from the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912
General characteristics
TypeOcean liner
Tonnage13,603 GRT, 8,660 NRT
Length558 ft (170 m)
Beam64 ft 6 in (19.66 m)
Draught34 ft 7 in (10.54 m)
Decks7
Propulsion
  • 2 × Wallsend Slipway Co. quadruple expansion steam engines
  • Twin propellers
Speed
  • 15.5 kn (17.8 mph; 28.7 km/h) (planned trial speed)
  • 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h) (service)
Capacity
  • 1,704 passengers; after 1905, 2,550:
    • 1st-class: 100
    • 2nd-class: 200
    • 3rd-class: 2,250

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.

The Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 from Liverpool to Boston, and continued on this route before being transferred to Mediterranean service in 1904. In April 1912, she became famous for rescuing survivors of the rival White Star Line's RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Carpathia navigated the ice fields to arrive two hours after the Titanic had sunk, and the crew rescued 705 survivors from the ship's lifeboats.

The Carpathia was sunk during World War I on 17 July 1918 after being torpedoed three times by the German submarine U-55 off the southern Irish coast, with a loss of five crew members.

The name of the ship comes from the mountain range of the Carpathians in Central Europe.[2]

  1. ^ "RMS Carpathia (1903)". Tyne Built Ships. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  2. ^ Ludowyke, Jay (2018). Carpathia: The Extraordinary Story of the Ship that Rescued the Survivors of the Titanic. Sydney, NSW: Hachette. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-7336-4067-4. OCLC 1024080123.