The Archive · 15 April 1912 · The North Atlantic

The Carpathia and the Titanic: would you race through the ice?

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The case

Told from where the person who decided stood. In the game each line is written into a drawing as you tap.

You are captain of the liner Carpathia. It is past midnight. Your wireless man wakes you with a message.
The Titanic has struck ice and is sinking. She is 58 miles away. At your ship’s usual best speed, that is four hours.
Between you and her lies the same ice field. It is dark. You have no way to see ice but men’s eyes.
About 740 passengers are asleep below. Their safety is your first duty, and nobody would blame a careful captain.

Carefully.A safe speed through the ice. Your own passengers are safe. The people in the water have less time.
Flat out.Every bit of steam, in the dark. One unseen berg, and you are the second ship to sink tonight.

Make the call in the game Free. No account. Two minutes.

Arthur Rostron raced. He drove the ship past her usual speed, doubled the lookouts, and steered round the ice.

The Carpathia reached the lifeboats in about three and a half hours and took aboard more than 700 people.

Asked later about the risk to his own ship, Rostron said it was a chance, and that he knew what he was doing.

Source: British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry (1912), Report: “Rescue by the SS Carpathia”. www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTReport/botRepRescue.php

History is not an answer key. This page says what was done and what came of it. Whether it was right is the question the case leaves with you.

The same kind of question runs through The Rescue (Where does your circle end?), one of the nine journeys of the game.

All the rooms: the case files