Photograph of CARPATHIA from Dr. Blackmarr album

photograph

Page from the album of Dr. Blackmarr, with a broadside photograph of the CARPATHIA. On the photograph, Dr. Blackmarr has drawn arrows showing his stateroom and the ship's "Marconi room" where the wireless telegraph operator worked. Dr. Blackmarr was a passenger on the CARPATHIA and documented its rescue of the TITANIC survivors. In the notes he prepared for a lecture about his experience (item #2020.39.7387), Dr. Blackmarr explains that he had become friendly with the CARPATHIA's wireless operator, Harold Cottam. On the early morning of April 15, "I retired shortly after twelve o’clock and had just got into my berth when I was aroused by a knock. The wireless operator, in going from his quarters to the bridge to deliver the Titanic’s C.Q.D. [distress] message, had knocked." So Dr. Blackmarr knew of the emergency as soon as, if not before, the CARPATHIA's captain and was following the rescue operation while other passengers on the CARPATHIA were sleeping and unaware that the ship had changed course and was speeding through icy waters to attempt a rescue.