Captain Arthur Henry Rostron was a brave, caring, selfless, loving gentleman. He immediately sprang into action upon being informed about the Titanic’s distress call, gave orders to turn the Carpathia around and made great efforts to reach the Titanic as quickly as possible as well as made great preparations for the hospitality of the survivors. He was definitely a real captain!
The word captain comes from the Latin word capitaneus, meaning “chief” or “leader”. Rostron was certainly that. He’d never before responded to a distress call in his life, and there weren’t any real guidelines on how to perform a rescue at sea. After the Titanic disaster, his actions were adopted almost verbatim into standard practice.
"Carpathia" was built for Cunard, White Star Line's main rival. Ismay was hoping to outshine Cunard with "Titanic", only for her to sink and being rescued by a Cunard ship. Ironic, don't you think?
I like Rostron's expression here because it changes in a millisecond. The _Carpathia_ 's wireless operator bursts into his cabin and he is utterly furious - he's still furious when the sparks tells him of a distress call... He instantly gets concerned before anything else is said Damn good bit of acting
Oh, even back when this all happened, the formal inquiry in London afterwards didn't miss a beat when it came to the _Californian_ : "You were a fair distance, yet within plain eyesight of the _Titanic's_ ship lights! Even with your wireless switched off, you would have STILL seen any emergency flares the _Titanic_ would've launched into the air! Now, exactly _WHAT_ do you have to say about all _THAT?"_
In actuality it didn't happen quite like this. Cottom was waiting for an answer to a message he had sent. He and the officer of the watch both went charging into Rostron's cabin with the news. He did react exactly as shown. So many other captains would have questioned Cottom first, he told the officer to turn the ship around and head towards Titanic, then questioned Cottam. As Walter Lord says in his excellent sequel book, The Night Lives On, it was the utter total competence that Captain Rostran showed that set him apart. He took his ship on an incredibly dangerous trek, at night and at beyond full speed for his ship, actually hitting 18 knots during it. He gave all the orders you see him give, he thought of everything. The entire crew rolled out for this without question. Another item not shown was that he also placed extra lookouts, 2 up at the bow. They actually spotted Ice before the lookouts in the crows nest. Rostran and his crew were feted by Cunard and the survivors. Rostran ended up becoming Commodore of the Cunard Line. Definitely a man you wanted to sail with.
Also the main reason why the officers on Carpathia questioned the distress call was because they believed it was phony as there even pranksters back then who used wireless and would send out fake distress calls pretending to be ships. The only reason why Cottom was so sure that it was really Titanic was because he knew Jack Phillips, the wireless operator on the Titanic, and the two would commonly use the phrase “Old Man” to each other. Phillips said to Cottom; “Come at once Old Man!” That’s how Cottom was certain that it was a serious call.
You know what I wished we saw. The reaction of the passengers of the Carpathia. I mean, the Carpathia had passengers aboard too and who knows how they felt upon their trip changing course!
@@XJIcequeen according to the book, they woke up shocked at the site of icebergs, they were heading to the Mediterranean and the weather was becoming nicer during the day. One story, Mr and Mrs Charles Marshall traveling on the Carpathia were awakened by the Steward, his niece wished to see him, he was incredulous, how could that be, all 3 of his nieces were making the Titanic's maiden voyage, they even sent him a wireless last night. The steward explained and moments later they were having a family reunion with Mrs E.D. Appleton, the other nieces arrived later.
@@gftyhify And how officer Dean didn’t protest against Rostron’s orders to turn the ship around and start heading for the Titanic in spite of initially not believing what Cottam told him.
@@THOMASINTHE1980S most Captains would probably first ask the radio operator if he was sure it was the Titanic calling for help and then tell the bridge officer to turn the ship around, but I guess Rostron felt that every second counted hence why he did it the other way around
Kudos to Harold Cottam and Arthur Rostoron for their quick reactions to the situation. It takes balls to break into the captain’s cabin without knocking and also how quickly Rostron was able to let his anger go after being rudely woken up
@@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY I know but from Arthur’s point of view he would’ve seen it as rude and disrespectful until he heard about the Titanic’s distress call
@Joshua Allan I think that's most anybody. Think about it. Let's say you lived with your brother as an example. He burst into your room and wakes you up. You're initially displeased. However if it's an emergency and it's important he did you'd be glad he did
What’s amazing to me is Captain Rostron risked the safety of his ship’s crew and passengers by running Carpathia’s engines harder than they ever had been before. He did everything humanly possible to rescue as many people as he could. Sadly they couldn’t reach the titanic before it sank. The Carpathia had a Captain who was definitely a Captain of integrity, courage, and honor to do what he did that night along with his crew as well. It’s sad that just a few years later during the war Carpathia met the same fate as titanic from a torpedo from I think a German u boat. The people aboard her are resting at peace at the bottom of the sea with all those innocents who lost everything in the titanic disaster. I’m glad that major shipping changes resulted after titanic and the Olympic underwent some very serious and awesome changes that had the titanic had I do believe we wouldn’t have to live with knowing she’s on the bottom of the North Atlantic deteriorating away. But..... why does it always take some terrible horrible tragedy resulting in unthinkable loss of life for change to happen. 9/11 should have never even been a possibility. How the heck do terrorists hijack 2 passenger airline jets using just box cutters and fly them into 2 110 story tall buildings resulting in their collapse. I think near 3000 people died that day. And it was after the 9/11 attacks they decided oh shit were better beef up security??? You think!!!!???? It’s a little late now!!!! Although it prevented future disasters of that nature from happening. Anyway love the history of the titanic❤️❤️❤️
And fortunately, no one on the Carpathia got hurt during its rescue mission. Its passengers even joined the crew in making great hospitality preparations for the Titanic’s survivors once they found out what was going on upon being unintentionally awakened by how cold their rooms had gotten due to their heat being turned off. They even selflessly gave up their warm clothes, blankets, and bedrooms for them. It was sad that the Carpathia later sank too, but fortunately its sinking wasn’t nearly as tragic as the Titanic’s sinking. It got struck by 3 torpedoes and then took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to sink in which only 5 of its crew members died in an explosion.
When asked why Rostron took such risks, he expressed his confidence in his crew, and his opinion that the reasons for doing so outweighed the risks. He’s not wrong. At least a few died even after being rescued. Who knows how many more if the Captain and his crew had decided to do anything less than their absolute best that night. All well deserving of the universal praise and rewards heaped on them, including by the British and American governments. I’m of the opinion that every crew member on that ship that night wore the fact that they were crucial in saving every last survivor of Titanic as a badge of honour for the rest of their lives.
"Safety Regulations are written in BLOOD..." As are increased security measures! Finally I think that there needs to a documentary called: "The Charge of the Carpathia"!! How about you?
@Yaad Hassan Indeed, exactly as he described it in his own book "Home from the sea" :-)) Actually - the best "Titanic" movie ever. All actors are fantastic.
@@xdbym Of course we remember him! In his autobiography Sir Arthur Rostron emphasised that he was only able to do what he did because of the dedication and alertness of his wireless operator. In fact both Marconi operators sealed the fate of their respective captains - Arthur Rostron and Stanley Lord.
Mauretania was called The Rostron Express by the passengers because of how much attention he constantly paid to the ship’s schedule departures and and arrivals. That man loved that ship. Probably as much as Lightoller loved the Oceanic.
I think this as perhaps the greatest scene in film history. Its full of emotion and completely believeable. The heroism and selflessness depicted makes for one unforgettable scene.
The Titanic and Carpathia were really built by companies that were bitter rivals at the time of the Titanic disaster, but that sure didn't stop the Carpathia from making making an extremely mad dash to the Titanic's rescue. It's so great that the brave, generous, hard working crew of the Carpathia payed absolutely no attention to the White Star Line/Cunard Line rivalry throughout the time of that disaster since they knew that saving the lives of those in danger really overcomes corporate competition.
I wish there were movie scenes of Harold Cottam after the Carpathia rescued the survivors. He was good friends with the Titanic's wireless radio operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride long before the Titanic's sinking happened and I can't imagine how Cottam and Bride must have felt to have been seeing each other again after that tragic sinking and about how their work is what got the Carpathia into action to save as many of the Titanic's people as possible. It was also great of Bride to have been working together with Cottam to transmit messages about the sinking during their journey to New York City, even though he had badly injured his feet in the disaster.
That wireless operator saved hundreds of lives, as did the crew of the Carpathia they put there lives at risk to save others please dont take the micky
@@espnluver7525 A couple of boats were about to collapse when the "Carpathia" arrived! Perhaps a handful would hang on until the "Olympic"'s arrival, but not many. The morale was also important: Rostron ordered to fire rockets to keep the hope.
And so did the Carpathia’s passengers. When they found out what was going on, they joined the crew in preparing plenty warm clothes, blankets and hot food and even gave up their rooms for the survivors.
Every sailor today should learn of RMS Carpathia and her brave crew. They set a shining example of what real sailors and officers should follow! I have the greatest respect for RMS Carpathia, Captain Roston and his crew!
@James Loudenslager Regulations state that a ship’s distress rockets should be launched one at a time, and wait 10-15 minutes to launch another. Titanic launched every 1-2 Minutes.
@@cvalencia7321 regulations at the time actually stated that distress rockets should be launched in 1 minute intervals. Titanic was launching them in 5 minute intervals, as stated in this scene. @James radio technology was in diapers at the time. For that reason, rockets were often used for non-distress communication, so there definitely was a room for misundedrstanding.
Harold Cottam was very close to turning in and would have shut his Marconi wireless down for the night. It makes you wonder what would have happened to the lifeboat survivors, had they been forced to endure more hours of drifting on the ocean. The Atlantic had become a little choppy by the time Carpathia turned up and the collapsible boats especially would have struggled. I'm sure that the upturned boat would also have been swamped by the waves.
Well, fortunately those people on that upturned lifeboat eventually met up with other lifeboats and were assisted into them before the waves got rough. But yes if it weren’t for Harold Cottam staying up a little later than usual and picking up the distress call when he was on no official duty then awakening Arthur Rostron to inform him of it, things would’ve definitely been much worse for the survivors and more of them would’ve died. They were all exhausted, crying, and shivering and the water was close to knee level on that upturned lifeboat when the other lifeboats came to them and they had their feet bandaged up once they were rescued since they were terribly injured from being in that frigid water too long.
Captain Rostron instantly started giving many orders. It’s like he’s been preparing for this is whole life. Captain Smith should’ve been like him. Smith gave a few orders and sort of just broke down. Not in hysterics, he just sort of hovered.
@@alinagordelli877 Anthony Bushell. I would have thought Captain Rostron would have been thinking about the task he has just been set at the time. Anthony Bushell could have been thinking about going to a fancy restaurant with his mistress and hoping his wife won't find out not to mention what brand of cigars he should be smoking when he visits the Lake District at the weekend lol.
@@swaneknoctic9555 Aah :-)) I thought Anthony Bushell was happily married to his second wife at the time of shooting )). He was a squadron commander during the second world war, BTW ))
Alina Gordelli you clearly didn’t know him as well as I did? I knew he was having an affair for years but kept it to myself, many people did get the impression he was very happily married during the filming of this picture, however I knew better. Apparently he asked his wife to do some rather bizarre and unusual things in the bedroom which she declined, their marriage was never the same.
@@swaneknoctic9555 Gosh! I did not know Mr Anthony Bushell at all: I was not even born then! )) All what matters is that he played Captain Rostron really very well. Forgive my intrusion, but in order to be able to keep to yourself the actor's affair which happened about 70 years ago, you must be at least 90 now! )))
I just can't believe how complacent the crew of the californian was. It only takes 5 min to wakeup the wireless operator to see if anything is urgent on the wireless.
If they only had the 24 hour watch rule on the radio(Was introduced after the sinking) and a prompt response been mounted to the Titanic's distress rockets,many more lives could have been saved.
@@Bullski123 Once they saw the rockets, all they had to do was wake up their wireless operator and have him ask who was firing rockets. They would've heard the distress calls at once. I do question if the Californian would have made it there before the Titanic sank, but still...Rostron had no hope of reaching the Titanic in time, and yet he still made an effort.
@@stravinsky1300 Apparently their answer to "what did you think she was firing rockets for?" was "A party on board." Back then the regulations just weren't fully in place, a real shame
@@mattd6085 I read some accounts of the officers on the Californian, and several of them remarked that "a ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing," and also, they seem to agree white rockets meant distress, not company signals or party fireworks.
And since it was the closest ship to respond to the Titanic’s distress signals, it was the only one to rescue any survivors and then returned to New York City.
Funny thing is that people criticized that even all the way back then after the Titanic sunk. Dozens of journalists and newspaper outlets said the same thing: Why didn't you guys at check to make sure things were okay?
@@fz7091 It was actually the SS Frankfurt that was the first ship to pick up the distress call and it was somewhere between 120 and 150 miles away. It was also the ship that informed the SS Californian about the Titanic disaster when they finally started their radio room back up.
That's what I call acting - look at Dean's (?) face: stern professional look, surprise at captains decision and instant professional acceptance, Aye Aye Sir and sharp move out to carry out order 2:04 - 2:07.
Perhaps of interest may be the story of David Broadfoot GC, who as radio officer of the SS Princess Victoria, stayed at his post in the face of certain death, to update rescue efforts on the location of his stricken ship during its tragic last voyage.
Brave B@$t@rds!! Carpathia full steam ahead even they didn’t care about their safety of the ice surrounding them That wireless room speedster should have been awarded the medal of valor for his heroism and responding like he did to inform this is not a test this is a cqd a distress call coming from titanic
Wait correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the binoculars aboard the RMS Titanic locked away and needed a key which an officer had after leaving the RMS Titanic after she set sail?
Yes, they were locked away and it was David Blair, the Titanic’s former second officer who took the key to the locker they were being stored in when he left the ship.
They did have binoculars, but the lookouts’ binoculars were locked away from them thanks to former second officer David Blair taking the key to the locker they were stored in.
Could they have made the officer on Californian any more sinister? Jeez Louise - all he was missing was an evil goatee, a cigarette holder, and a devious chuckle.
Titanic is a expensive blockbuster. A night to remember is almost a documentary. Personaly, I prefer to see what really happened. Not to mentioned the amount of money and technology Cameroon had compared to this 1958. movie.
I have a hard time believing the wireless operator acted that way. I read the communications from that night. It seemed like the Carpathia was trying to dump work on the Titanic. Only then did they find out about the sinking. Even after telling them that they had struck a berg, the Marconi man asked if he should contact his captain.
Hmmm a big ship is firing a rocket... Well it seems to be listing spark! No, its just an ilusion. Should we wake the wireless operator to see if anything important is there? No. 10/10 Wasted lives
Yup, there were more ships too and the Olympic got turned down by the Carpathia so it went back on its journey to Southampton while Mackay Bennet, SS Californian and a few other ships took action to recover bodies of those who died in the Titanic’s sinking and search for survivors the Carpathia might’ve missed after it picked up all of the survivors and left.
What about that ship over there 10 miles away, The Californian never responded to Titanic's distress signals, over a small little insult which cost the lives of 1500..
No, because the Californians wireless operator didn't work 24/7. He had a normal day shift, and would have gone to bed regardless. Ships ar that time weren't required to have wireless 24/7.
@@Thunderchild-gz4gc It actually only took her about a half hour to start moving again after she finally picked up the message about the Titanic sinking and some of the Titanic’s lifeboats even tried to row toward her so she could’ve saved at least some of the lives that were lost if she only started to action while watching the Titanic firing her rockets.
