Carnival Australia’s Emily Taylor made a surprising discovery about her maritime heritage in the course of helping to organise the company’s cruise season events, with the revelation of a famous sea captain in her family tree.
As part of her research for a recent Cunard event, Emily discovered her great great great grandfather, Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, was not only a former Commodore of the Cunard fleet but also the heroic captain of Carpathia, which rescued hundreds of Titanic survivors in 1912.
The maritime connections run across generations in the Taylor family. Sir Rostron is on Emily’s mother’s side of the family, originally from the United Kingdom. Emily’s mother, Karen Taylor, has previously worked at Carnival Australia Executive Chair Ann Sherry’s Executive Assistant.
Meanwhile Emily’s father Andrew Taylor also has the high seas in the blood. He is a former Royal Australian Navy submarine captain having transferred to Australia from the Royal Navy.
Emily, who has been working with Carnival Australia’s Corporate Affairs team, was four when the Taylor family migrated from Dartmouth to Australia. She is very proud to know that her great great great grandfather was a maritime hero.
“I always knew that we were related to the Captain of the Carpathia but I didn’t know he was the Commodore of the Cunard fleet or that he had been such a hero,” Emily said.
“My grandfather always said that his great grandfather had something to do with the Titanic but I didn’t know the details.”
As the history books record, Carpathia was on the way to New York when she received a distress call from Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Titanic had struck an iceberg and was sinking.
Captain Rostron immediately steered Carpathia to go to Titanic’s aid at full speed. Three and a half hours later Carpathia was on scene and would soon be pulling in survivors.
More than 710 survivors owed their lives to Captain Rostron and the highly efficient Carpathia crew. Subsequent inquiries into the Titanic disaster praised Captain Rostron for Carpathia’s part in the Titanic.
Captain Rostron was honoured for his part in the Titanic rescue in both America and Europe.
SOURCE: Carnival Australia