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Why did US Navy order USS Chester and USS Salem to accompany RMS Carpathia, while ferrying RMS Titanic's survivors to New York City? Why couldn't RMS Carpathia sail by itself to New York City? April 16 1912 was peace time — no war, or U Boats, YET in the Atlantic Ocean! Carpathia had no technical difficulties?

Dispatched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to stand by the liner Carpathia during her return to New York and, with the USS Chester, to offer necessary assistance.

Slowed by storms and fog since early Tuesday, April 16, 1912, Carpathia arrived in a cold and rainy New York evening on Thursday, April 18, escorted by the scout cruiser USS Chester.

While making a routine cruise off Nantucket, was ordered by wireless by the United States Navy to proceed to intercept Carpathia, then carrying Titanic survivors, and accompany the liner to New York.

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  • Wikipedia also mentions that Chester's sister ship Salem was also part of the escort. Commented Apr 27 at 8:37
  • @SteveBird thanks. added salem to post Commented Apr 27 at 8:45
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    I mean, obviously those waters were dangerous, as they sank the "unsinkable" Titanic. So it doesn't seem that weird that someone might be worried that the rescue ship might possibly end up needing a rescue ship. Commented Apr 27 at 19:20
  • @T.E.D. but was Carparthia steaming at full speed, and flouting ice warnings, like Titanic? Right after Titanic's sinking, didn't Carparthia take more care, do more diligence, and pay more attention to ice warnings? Commented 2 days ago
  • @user257486 - The reason Titanic felt comfortable doing all that is because they had a special iceberg-resistant (sadly not iceberg-proof, like the marketing materials said) design. Carpathia wasn't built like that, and was (at least at first) steaming through the same waters. If this was the heart of your question, I suppose I could write an answer saying that? Commented 2 days ago

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