At 12:35 in the
morning, the wireless operator on board the 13,564-ton RMS Carpathia received
a distress message from the Titanic. The ship, in route from New York to
the Mediterranean, immediately turned around and sped, as fast as possible,
northwest to the distressed ship about 93 kilometers or 58 miles away.
The captain, Rastron, was preparing the Carpathia for any survivors of
the Titanic, even though he didn’t have any idea of how many people there
would be. All of the doctors that were on the Carpathia had been put on
standby, the cooks and the stewards were preparing food and accommodations,
and every 15 minutes the rockets were fired to signal the approach of the
Carpathia. Captain Rostron was immediately concerned about the ice; the
iceberg that had sunk the Titanic could also, very easily, sink his ship.
When the Carpathia finally
reached the spot where the Titanic had last been reported, and had cut
its engines, it was 4:00 A. M. Among the gloom, in lifeboat number
2, a green light flickered, where Fourth Officer Boxhall was in charge.
When Boxhall was aboard the Carpathia he informed the worst to Captain
Rostron, who then was faced with the horrible task of organizing the operation
for the rescue.
Searching for survivors,
the only lifeboat that went back to search for any survivors was lifeboat
number 14, which Fifth Officer Lowe was in charge. His boat had pulled
four survivors from the ocean. All of the other lifeboats rowed away from
the grim scene because they feared being pulled down by the sinking Titanic
or being drowned by the people struggling for their lives in the ocean.
In total, only twelve people were rescued, even though most of the lifeboats
had room for a lot more.
As all the survivors scampered
onto the Carpathia, they were accommodated by the crew and passengers offering
them hot food, drinks, blankets and a bit of brandy. Some of the survivors
on board were taken into cabins and the others huddled together on the
deck, trying to take in the ordeal that had just been through.
In July of 1986, Robert Ballard
and two members of his team descended two and a
half miles to the ocean floor in
their tiny submarine. One year earlier they had located
the wreck of the Titanic. Now they
wanted to explore the sunken liner at close range.
As they shown their lights on the
rusted wreck of the lost ship, the events of that night, 74 years ago,
seemed to come alive once again.
The RMS Titanic, inc.'s 4th mission to to find the Titanic, during the summer of 1996, held ground breaking scientific investigation about the collision of the Titanic. while using the most complicated researching tools that were available and the advanced techniques of forensic science, crash investigation, and reverse engineering, and international group of scientist who were from five different countries examined the ship and tried to solve a lot of the mysteries of the disastrous wreck.
