The link between New York and Rijeka
If I say that the cities of New York and Rijeka have much more in common than just being port cities, would you wonder what I was thinking of? They actually have a pretty strong link which can still evoke many emotions. This link is deeply embedded in maritime disaster history. The answer is: Titanic. We all know the Titanic story and its horrifying accident. We also know that thousands of people died the night of the accident in tragic circumstances. But what does the Titanic, the ship that has never sailed to Croatia, have to do with this? Not many people know this fact, not even many Croatian people, so you are lucky to get to know something more about this.
Have you ever heard of the Carpathia ship? I am sure it rings the bell. Carpathia was a passenger steamship built in Newcastle, England, in the very beginning of 20th century. From the year 1903 Carpathia started sailing between New York City and Mediterranean ports at Gibraltar, Algiers, Naples, Trieste, and Rijeka. If it wasn’t for this ship, we probably wouldn’t know much about the last moments of Titanic. On the 11 April 1912, Carpathia departed from the Port of New York and set sail for Rijeka. After only four days, around 2AM, the Carpathia Captain was interrupted with Titanic’s SOS signals. The Captain ordered a deviation and the ship sailed to the source of the signal. Carpathia reached the place of Titanic’s accident at around 4AM and the rescue of the victims lasted for many hours. One of the Carpathia crew members was a 18 year old citizen of Rijeka. His name was Josip Car and he was a waiter on the ship. Josip and the rest of the crew members helped in saving people from the Titanic. When Josip came back home, he brought his life jacket as a reminder of that night. Today, the same Titanic life jacket is kept in Rijeka’s Maritime Museum. Other than this one, there are only four more such life jackets preserved in the US and Canada.
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