While rival lines chased the Blue Riband with overpowered liners, Cunard ordered the modest RMS Carpathia, launched in 1902: about 558 feet long, around 14 knots, fitted for second and third class passengers and frozen meat, with fuel efficient quadruple expansion engines that spared her the vibration of faster ships. By 1905 she was refit for over 2,500 passengers, adding first class. On the night of April 14 to 15, 1912, off duty wireless operator Harold Cottam was about to sleep when he messaged the Titanic at 12:11 a.m. and received its distress call instead.

Captain Arthur Rostron turned at once, cut heating and hot water to send all steam to the engines, set up triage in the dining rooms, and drove 58 miles through the ice field in three and a half hours. Arriving at 4 a.m., the crew took in over 700 survivors by 9 a.m. Rostron chose New York over closer ports and allowed wireless use only for survivor names, relayed to USS Chester. In the First World War the Carpathia carried troops in dazzle camouflage until July 17, 1918, when U-55 torpedoed her; 218 of 223 aboard escaped in 11 lifeboats before HMS Snowdrop drove the submarine off.

• Rostron was knighted and received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Taft.
• Survivors including Margaret Brown funded medals for the crew.
• A life jacket kept by a young Croatian waiter survives in a museum in Croatia.
• Carpathia was the fifth Cunard ship sunk in five weeks.
• Her wreck was found in 2000, upright 500 feet down off Ireland, by a team funded by Clive Cussler’s NUMA.