Carpathia was sailing from New York City to Fiume, Austria-Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia) on the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912. Among her passengers were the American painters Colin Campbell Cooper and his wife Emma, journalist Lewis P. Skidmore, photographer Dr. Francis H. Blackmarr, and Charles H. Marshall, whose three nieces were travelling aboard Titanic.
Carpathia's wireless operator, Harold Cottam, had missed previous messages fromTitanic, as he was on the bridge at the time. He then received messages from Cape Race, Newfoundland, stating they had private traffic for Titanic. He thought he would be helpful and at 12:11 am on 15 April sent a message to Titanic stating that Cape Race had traffic for them. In reply he received Titanic's distress signal. Cottam awakened Captain Arthur Henry Rostron who immediately set a course at maximum speed (17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h)) to Titanic's last known position, approximately 58 mi (93 km) away. Rostron ordered the ship's heating and hot water cut off in order to make as much steam as possible available for the engines. At full speed it took the Carpathia four hours to reach Titanic, while Titanic only stayed afloat for two hours and sank before Carpathia arrived. At 4:00 am, Carpathia arrived at the scene, after working her way through dangerous ice fields, and took on 705 survivors of the disaster from Titanic's lifeboats.
For their rescue work, the crew of Carpathia were awarded medals by the survivors. Crew members were awarded bronze medals, officers silver, and Captain Rostron a silver cup and a gold medal, presented by Margaret Brown. Rostron was knighted by King George V, was later a guest of President Taft at the White House, where he was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour the United States Congress could confer upon him.
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