Did You Know About the Reward for Carpathia’s Crew?
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Did You Know About the Reward for Carpathia‘s Crew?
Everyone interested in the Titanic disaster knows the name of the Cunarder which rescued her passengers and crew. However, Cunard’s executive committee met on 17 and 24 April 1912 to discuss some practical issues following on from the rescue.
They resolved to pay a grant to all of her crew:
It was decided that a sum equivalent to one month’s pay be granted to each member of the crew of the Carpathia in recognition of the services performed by them in connection with the rescue of the passengers from the SS Titanic.
The company also decided to increase the rate of pay for their captains and officers throughout the fleet from 1 June 1912, including a ‘£1 a month rise for every year’s service…irrespective of length of service’. The pay increases for second and third officers would apply automatically, ‘subject always to good conduct’, but the first and chief officers’ increases were dependent ‘only on a special recommendation from the marine superintendent accompanied by his certification as to the character of the officer and the duties he is performing’. For ‘officers whom the directors consider are not suitable for further promotion’, their pay would ‘remain at their existing rates…’
They had to make other practical decisions, too. Carpathia had returned to New York to land the survivors, so Cunard had to cancel the calls she had been scheduled to make at Genoa (eastbound) and Palermo (westbound) ‘in order that she may be able to keep her advertised sailing from New York on the 30th May 1912’.
Cunard also approved a contribution of £500 ‘in connection with the fund which has been raised on behalf of the sufferers in the Titanic disaster’.
