AFTER TWENTY YEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 124, 21 November 1931, Page 22

AFTER TWENTY YEARS

A reward of £20,000, earned by a man nearly twenty years ago, has just been paid in London. This remarkable incident is a sequel to the appalling disaster to tho White Star liner Titanic at 2.30 a.m. on Monday, 15th April, 1912. The lucky man to whom the £20,000 has been given is Sir Arthur Kostron, the t"amou3 Cuuard Lino captain, who at tho lime of the appalling tragedy was master of the steam ship Garpathia, another of the mammoth liners of the day..

The Carpathia was the only boat to reach the scene in time to save life, and managed to drag 703 people from the ice-cold water—all that were saved from a total of 2206 on board. Later the survivors, headed by members of the wealthy Astor family (Colonel J. J. Astor was one of the drowued), collected a purse to present to Sir Arthur Rostrou as an appreciation of his prompt and gallant dash to the rescue. The move met with wonderful support, partly due, no doubt, to the widespread bitterness felt at the time towards tho captain of another boat that was only a few miles away from the Titanic when she flashed out her frenzied SOS messages, but who allegedly ignored the appeals.

ships.' 5

RESCUER REWARDED

boat —the Californian—was censured by the Board of Trade for not pushing through the ice to the relief of the distressed vessel, but he denied that the signals he saw were signals of distress. When the handsome testimonial had been collected and all was ready for the presentation it was discovered that under the regulations of the Cuuard Company Sir Arthur would be unable to accept it while in its active service. The money was thereupon deposited in a New York bank as an investment at compound interest until the time when tho gallant captain would

cease to "go down to tho sea in

Recently, after 30 years' service, Sir Arthur retired, and although in tho intervening time the ranks of the donors of nearly a score of years ago have been thinned by death, those remaining did not forget and handed over the money. The testimonial, like wine, has improved wit!, keeping. It came from the bank a bulkier parcel than it went in—a sum of £20,000.

And- to Sir Arthur it was more or less of a surprise. When the impending presentation wns noised about England in May last ho told a questioner that he "knew nothing about it."