25. 1912 The Carpathia

This is the ship by which F.A.I.s book is entitled

‘ R.M.S. Carpathia Rescue Ship 1912’.

As I have said earlier Granny used to say he was on the Carpathia when it went to rescue the victims of the Titanic. In fact he sailed on her 3 months later (the 3rd Cook at the time was a Frederick W. Johnson).
You can imagine, however, there was still a certain ‘buzz’ around following that most tragic event in maritime history and the fact THIS was the ship that was there!


He sailed from New York on 16th July 1912, headed for the Mediterranean. It was a long old term at sea as he was discharged in Liverpool on new Years day 1913 (bet he had a great tan)

I would imagine, with such a long time at sea this is when most of the 1912 thoughts were written. 2 in particular are dated at the time of his service on the Carpathia.


The R.M.S Carpathia was truly one of Cunards most famous of vessels. She was built by Swan & Hunter, Newcastle and was launched on 6th August 1902.
Her maiden voyage was 4th May 1903, Liverpool – Boston (a route I imagine my granddad knew like the back of his hand!) During the summer she stayed on the New York - Liverpool sailings but in the winter she sailed New York – Trieste where she served as part of the Hungarian Emigration programme.

Obviously The Carpathias claim to fame is the dramatic 58 mile dash to rescue the Titanic’s survivors. She rescued all of the 705 survivors and returned them to New York.


With the outbreak of WW1 (from 1915 – 1918) she remained purely on the Liverpool – New York route.
On 17th July 1918 (almost 6 years to the day F.A.I. boarded her) she was torpedoed and sunk by U-Boat 55 west of Bishop Rock. 5 crew perished and the remaining 215 passengers/ crew were rescued by H.M.S. Snowdrop

The following pages will be given to the rest of the thoughts and poems written in 1912.