Neither the Carpathia nor any of the other ships that responded to Titanic's distress calls stayed around to pick up the corpses left in the water from the sinking. Most passenger steamers, not wanting to disturb their passengers, gave the scene of the sinking a wide berth. The first vessel sent to recover bodies was the cable-laying ship Mackey-Bennett, which ws chartered by White Star Line and sailed from Halifax on Wednesday, April 17, 1912, two days after the sinking. They arrived at the site and began picking up bodies at dawn on Sunday, April 21. Mackey-Bennett picked up 306 corpses all told before leaving the site on Friday, April 26.

The class distinctions that existed aboard Titanic were continued with the remains of her passengers and crew in death. All those First Class passengers whose bodies could be identified, as well as those unidentified bodies believed (based on clothing and personal effects) to be First Class were embalmed and returned to Halifax to be claimed by their families. Those corpses that were very badly damamged or unidentifiable, particularly those believed to be of crew members, were sewn upin weighted canvas and buried at sea. A total of 116 were buried at sea, leaving 190 to be returned to Halifax aboard Mackey-Bennett.

Several other ships were sent to search for bodies over the next several weeks. The steamer Minia, which relieved the Mackey-Bennett at the scene, recovered 17 corpses, of which 15 were brought back to Halifax. The steamer Montmagny was the third ship sent, and recovered 3 bodies (one of these buried). The steamer Algerine sailed from St. Johns, Newfoundland on May 15, and recovered only one body.

In each case, a fairly detailed description of the corpse and its effects was recorded, so that the victims might be identified in the future. At least some corpses were also photographed; the body of John Law Hume, one of Titanic's bandsmen, was identified this way.