#wwi history
17 July 1918
RMSCarpathia sank off the coast of Ireland after being torpedoed by a German U-boat on this day in history, 17 July 1918. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg and sank in April 1912. Carpathia was used during World War I to transport American and Canadian troops across the Atlantic.
On the summer morning of 17 July 1918 she was torpedoed in the Celtic Sea by the Imperial German Navy U-boat, U-55. Of three torpedoes fired at the ship, one impacted the port side while another penetrated the engine room, killing two firemen and three trimmers. All 57 passengers and 218 surviving crew members boarded lifeboats as the vessel sank. U-55 surfaced and fired a third torpedo into the ship and was approaching the lifeboats when the Azalea-class sloop HMS Snowdrop arrived on the scene and drove away the U-boat with gunfire before picking up the survivors from Carpathia.
ICYMI, our new partnership with Manual Cinema in honor of 100 years since the end of World War I is here! Three World War I Poems brings a selection of poems to life with innovative paper puppetry and animation work, each vignette sharing a different experience of “the war to end all wars” from a soldier’s point of view.
[video: Three interwoven vignettes of interpretations of “The Owl” by Edward Thomas, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, and “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae.]
