The Hemlington Nautical History Society

Carpathia surveyed

01/11/07

A British-led team of technical divers has successfully completed a survey of the Titanic’s rescue ship, the Carpathia, which lies at 160m in the north Atlantic. The team, led by Ric Waring and including Rich Stevenson  and Jeff Cornish

Richard ( photo to left ) learned to dive in 1988 with Worsey sub aqua club and he is still a club member. He did a trimix course in 1996 and Buddy Inspiration rebreather coarse in 1999, he enjoy’s diving all over Britain particularly Outer Hebrides, Scapa, the Clyde, Anglsea, Weymouth, and Cornwall. Over the last few years I have started to dive progressively deeper culminating this year on dives on HMS Seagull, HMS Pheasant, HMS King Edward and finally HMS Dasher he told us, in September.I enjoyed the challenge of deeper wrecks, particualy when they have not been dived. I plan my dives using "Z plan" breathing trimix all the way to the surface on the inspiration, which is unchanged and carry two 10lt side mounts as bailout, I use a Sunto "Vyper" in gauge mode to log my dives and ware an otter neoprene suit to stay warm on long hangs with as many cloths as possible underneath. “I look forward to diving the Carpathia, hopefully with some good vis and hope to dive some new wrecks in the build up.” He told us[1]

Rich has enjoyed mixed gas diving for the last 6 years both in the UK and abroad. His main interests are diving deeper, more challenging wrecks, that are often found in and around UK waters. His passion for diving has taken him around the world in search of adventure, but he admits to still getting a buzz out of all types of underwater exploration, especially caves. To aid his search for new wrecks, he has recently aquired an ex Naval Fleet Tender vessel to take like minded individuals off into the ocean to search and explore. This year alone Rich has participated in major expeditions such as the Starfish Enterprise's trip to Jutland, HMS King Edward in 115m, and HMS Dasher in 140m. Both Rich and his boat Loyal Watcher spent 3 weeks off the Western Coast of Ireland exploring shipwrecks that included the Warship HMS Audacious in 62m, White Star Liner Justitia in 72m, Tuscania in 108m, and the Empire Heritage in 64m. The chance of diving RMS Carpathia is what has kept Rich inspired over the last 2 years whilst the project has been planned Rich owns and works at Deep Blue Diving, a diver training centre in the UK. [2]

The team penetrated the wreck situated 200 miles from the Irish Coast.

RMS Carpathia was on her way to the Mediterranean on the night of 14 April 1912 when it received the Titanic’s SOS call. After negotiating 58 miles of iceberg-strewn water, the liner recovered 712 survivors.

A excellent list of survivors from the Titanic, and well researched, can be found on Phil Hinds encyclpiedia-titanica web site[3]

 Six years later on the 17^th July 1918. The German U-boat U-55, Commanded by Wilhelm Werner, sank her. The Carpathia was sailing 170 miles off Bishop Rock, when two torpedoes from the U-55 hit her. The ship was on route to Boston in Convoy. The order was given to abandon ship, as the crew was abandoning the ship a third and final torpedo hit home. 5 crew members where killed instantly. All of the Carpathia’s passengers where saved and picked up by HMS Snowdrop, as where the remaing crew. The survivors where later returned to Liverpool. The Carpathia sunk at 12-40AM.

The wreck was first found by the famous author and adventurer Clive Cussler  (Pictured right) in 1999, however, because it lies 200 miles from the nearest land and lies at depths of more than 150m, only a few dives have been completed at the site.

Technical divers Rich Stevenson (see *1), Ric Waring, Zaid Al-Obaidi and Bruce Dunton carried out a short dive in his 2001 dive [4]Bad weather prevented further exploration by the team and hampered two following attempts until now.

 Using rebreathers the ten-strong team comprised of British, Italian and German divers, dived the site for six days.

‘We did a total of six days diving on the wreck with both teams doing three dives each,’ said Waring. ‘Bottom times ranged from 20 to 27 minutes, with total in water times of between four and a half and six hours. All divers used rebreathers as the logistics to conduct an expedition on open circuit would be impractical, not only carrying the gas on the dive, but also carrying enough gas on the boat.’

He added: ‘The wreck has seen better days and after 95 years under water is in an advanced state of collapse.’   According to the team, the wreck stands upright, however, its deteriorating condition made it difficult to identity particular sections.

‘Visibility on the wreck was fantastic albeit it slightly dark,’ explained Stevenson. ‘You can see without lights and can clearly see divers 30m away, although we used powerful torches on the dive. There is crockery strewn all over the place and lots of artefacts, such as gauges, portholes, sinks and even three toilets in a row are plainly visible.’

While Waring’s team was diving the Carpathia in August this year, the owners of the wreck, Titanic INC, were conducting surveys using remotely operated vehicles (ROV).

‘We were buzzed a couple of times by the ROV from Titanic INC as it carried on its survey work and its recovery of artefacts for the forthcoming Titanic exhibition. It only stopped when it came over to film us,’ said Cornish. ‘As the Titanic INC team was out there at the same time as us, we handed over the crockery we had found, and also the double-headed telegraph as soon as we had raised them.’

Cornish believes that the expedition is the first to be conducted by a sport diving team so far from shore and so deep. ‘I guess we have conducted the deepest, independently verified [by ROV] wreck dive in the world,’ said Cornish.

The Titanic INC exhibition is expected in the UK in 2008 following restoration of the Carpathia exhibits. For more information on the Carpathia expedition, see the dive team’s website Here