As the "Carpathia" began to settle by the head and list to port, Captain William Prothero gave the order to abandon ship. All passengers and the surviving crew members boarded the 11 lifeboats as the "Carpathia" sank. There were 218 survivors of the 223 aboard. As the passengers and crew disembarked, Prothero, the chief officer, first and second officers and the gunners remained on the sinking ship, seeing to it that all the confidential books and documents were thrown overboard. The captain then signalled one of the lifeboats to come alongside, and he and the remaining crew members abandoned their ship. "U-55" surfaced and fired a third torpedo into the ship near the gunner's rooms, resulting in a massive explosion that doomed the "Carpathia". "U-55" started approaching the lifeboats when the sloop arrived on the scene and drove away the submarine with gunfire before picking up the survivors from the "Carpathia" around 1:00 P.M. The "Snowdrop" arrived back in Liverpool with the survivors on the evening of 18 July.