R.M.S. CARPATHIA SALVAGE: R.M.S. CARPATHIA SALVAGE: The Car...

Hammer

£39,000

R.M.S. CARPATHIA SALVAGE:

R.M.S. CARPATHIA SALVAGE: The Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson in Wallsend, Liverpool, Tyne and Wear in England in 1903. She is best known as the ship which rescued all of Titanic's survivors. In the early morning of 15^th April, 1912 the Carpathia's radio operator, Harold Cottam, received a message from Titanic that she had struck an iceberg. After the message was brought to the ship's master, Captain Arthur Rostron took immediate steps to steam to Titanic's reported position, calling on additional stokers to make all possible speed. He ordered the ship's heating and hot water cut off to provide as much steam as possible to the engines. After navigating around an ice field, Carpathia reached Titanic's position at about 4:00 A.M., a little more than an hour and a half after Titanic went down. Carpathia arrived in New York on 18^th April, 1912 where Titanic's survivors disembarked and the Carpathia resumed its regular voyage to the Mediterranean.

After being pressed into service during World War I by the British Admiralty, Carpathia was sunk on 17^th July, 1918 by three torpedoes fired by U-55 of the German Imperial Navy.

Carpathia was discovered lying in an upright position at a depth of about 500 feet of water 120 miles west of Fastnet, Ireland. Exploring it posed some difficulty. While there are rare cases of commercial divers briefly reaching depths of 1000 feet, 500 feet represents the more realistic limit of human tolerance for deep sea divers, imposing a heavy decompression penalty of five hours.

Numerous dives were made in August and September 2007 to recover Carpathia's artefacts from the debris field. Over 90 artefacts were recovered including some involved in Carpathia's rescue of Titanic's survivors.

R.M.S. TITANIC/OCEAN LINER/R.M.S. CARPATHIA, SALAVAGED TELEGRAPH ON BASE

Today, modern vessels have a throttle on the bridge for the direct control of the engines without any involvement of engine room personnel. In Titanic's time, bridge personnel would have to move the pointer on the telegraph to the desired speed. This would trigger an "alarm" bell in the engine room which signalled an incoming engine order from the bridge. In the case of the rescue of the Titanic's surviving passengers and crew, this ship's telegraph was an integral part of one of the most famous events of the 20^th Century. Captain Rostron set a course for Titanic upon receiving the distress calls. He then sent for his chief engineer and told him to "call another watch of stokers and make all possible speed to the Titanic".

The pointer of the telegraph would move to the position on the dial which was selected by the bridge such as Full Ahead, Half Ahead, Slow Ahead, Stop, Slow Astern, etc. The engineers would signal receipt of the order by moving the engine room pointer lever to the same position which would trigger a bell to ring in the bridge's telegraph. The engineers would then bring the engines to the desired speed. In an emergency, such as an order for an emergency stop, bridge personnel would bring the lever to the "stop" position three times. This would result in an equal number of rings in the engine room telegraph signalling an urgent request.

The telegraph was manufactured by A. Robinson & Co. Ltd, Liverpool & Glasgow with maker's plaque present. The telegraph top was recovered on 29^th August, 2007 by a deep wreck diver using a lift bag. The artefact exhibits expected pitting, dents and some of the original glass is present and intact. Quite simply an exceptional piece of memorabilia and an essential part of the Carpathia's endeavours to reach the Titanic's survivors. The certificate of authenticity is signed by expedition leader P. H. Nargaret who was one of those lost on board The Titan on 18 June 2023, when she dived to Titanic.