Harold Bride was the only survivor of Titanic's two wireless operators. The New York Times reporter who snagged his interview sported quite a feather in his cap but he remained nameless because he did not get a byline on the story. The reason was because the article already had a byline and was shown under the headlines as "By Harold Bride, Surviving Wireless Operator of the Titanic."
"This statement was dictated by Mr. Bride to a reporter for The New York Times, who visited him with Mr. Marconi in the wireless cabin of the Carpathia a few minutes after the steamship toucher her pier."
Here are some excerpts:
It begins with:
"In the first place, the public should not blame anybody because more wireless messages about the disaster to the Titanic did not reach shore from the Carpathia. I positively refused to send press dispatches because the bulk of personal message with touching words of grief was so large. The wireless operators aboard the Chester got all they asked for. And they were wretched operators.
They knew American Morse but not Continental Morse sufficiently to be worth while. They taxed our endurance to the limit. I had to cut them out at last, they were so insufferably slow, and go ahead with our messages of grief to relatives. We sent 119 personal messages today and 50 yesterday. When I was dragged aboard the Carpathia, I went to the hospital at first. Then somebody brought word that the Carpathia's wireless operator was "getting queer" from the work. They asked me if I could go up and help.
"I could not walk. Both my feet were broken or something, I don't know what. I went up on crutches with somebody helping me. I took the key and I never left the wireless cabin after that. Our meals were brought to us. We kept the wireless working all the time. The Navy operators were a great nuisance. I advise them all to learn the Continental Morse and learn to speed up in it if they ever expect to be worth their salt. The Chester's man thought he knew it, but he was as slow as Christmas coming.
"We worked all the time. Nothing went wrong. Sometimes the Carpathia man sent and sometimes I sent. There was a bed in the wireless cabin. I could sit on it and rest my feet while sending sometimes.
"To begin at the beginning, I joined the Titanic at Belfast. I was born at Nunhead, England, 22 years ago, and joined the Marconi forces last July. I first worked on the Hoverford, then on the Lusitania. I didn't have much to do aboard the Titanic except to relieve Phillips from midnight until some time in the morning when he was through sleeping.
"On the night of the accident, I was not sending, I was asleep. I was due to be up and relieve Phillips earlier than usual. And that reminds me - if it hadn't been for a lucky thing, we never could have sent any call for help. The lucky thing was that the wireless broke down early enough for us to fix it before the accident happened. We noticed something wrong on Sunday and Phillips and I worked seven hours to find it.
"We found a "secretary" had burned out and we repaired it just a few hours before the iceberg was struck. Phillips said to me as he took the night shift "You turn in, boy, and get some sleep, and go up as soon as you can and give me a chance. I'm all done with the work of making repairs.
"There were three rooms in the wireless cabin. One was a sleeping room, one a dynamo room, and one an operating room. I took off my cothes and went to sleep inbed. Then I was conscious of waking up and hearing Phillips sending to Cape Race. I read what he was sending. It was a traffic matter.
"I remembered how tired he was and I got out of bed without my clothes on to go relieve him. I didn't even feel the shock. I hardly knew it had happened after the Captain had come to us. There was no jolt whatever.
"I was standing by Phillips telling him to go to bed when the Captain put his head in the cabin and said "We've struck an iceberg, and I'm having an inspection made to tell what it has done for us. You better get ready to send out a call for assistance, but don't send it until I tell you." The Captain went away and in 10 minutes, I should estimate the time, he came back. We could hear the terrible confusion outside, but there was not the least thing to indicate that there was any trouble. The wireless was working perfectly.
"The Captain barely put his head in the door and said "Send the call for assistance!" Phillips asked "What call should I send?" The reply was "The regulation international call for help. Just that." Then the Captain was gone.
"Phillips began to send 'C.Q.D.' He flashed away at it and we joked while he did so. All of us made light of the disaster. We joked that way while he flashed the signals for about five minutes. Then the Captain came back and asked "What are you sending?" Phillips replied 'C.Q.D.' The humor of the situation appealed to me. I cut in with a little remark that made us all laugh, including the Captain. I said "Send 'S.O.S.' It's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it.'
Phillips with a laugh changed the signal to S.O.S. The Captain told us we had been struck amdiships or just back of amidships. Phillips told me it was ten minutes after he noticed the iceberg that the slight jolt was the collision's only signal (of what occurred). We thought we were a good distance away.
"We said lots of funny things to each other in the next few minutes. We picked up first the steamship Frankfurd. We gave her our position and said we had struck an iceberg and needed assistance. The Frankfurd operator went to tell his Captain. He came back and we told him we were sinking by the head. By that time we could observe Titanic's distinct list forward.
"The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our position and said we were sinking by the head. The operator went to tell his Captain and in five minutes he returned and told us the Captain of the Carpathia was putting about and heading for us.
"Our Captain had left us at this time and Phillips told me to run and tell him what the Carpathia had answered. I did so, and I went through an awful mass of people to get to his cabin. The decks were full of scrambling men and women. I saw no fighting but I heard tell of it.
"I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia fuller directions. Phillips told me to put on my clothes Until that moment, I forgot that I was not dressed. I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat to Phillips. It was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon him while he worked. Every few minutes, Phillips would send me to the Captain with little messages. They were merely telling how the Carpathia was coming our way and gave their speed.
"I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off women and children into the lifeboats. I noticed that thelist forward was also increasing. Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker. The Captain came and told us our engine rooms were taking water and that the dynamos might not last much longer. We sent that word to the Carpathia.
"I went out on deck and looked around. The water was pretty close up to the boat deck. There was a great scramble aft, and how poor Phillips worked through it, I don't know. He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly felt for him a great reverence to see him standing there, sticking to his work, while everybody else was raging about. I will never live to forget the work of Phillips for the last awful fifteen minutes.
"I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything detached that would float. I remembered that every member of the crew had a special life belt and ought to know where it was. I remembered that mine was under my bunk. I went and got it, then I thought how cold the water was.
"I remembered I had some boots and I put those on, and an extra jacket and I put that on. I saw Phillips standing there still sending away, giving the Carpathia details of just how we were doing.
"We picked up the Olympic and told her we were sinking by the head and were about all down. As Phillips was sending the message, I strapped his life belt to his back. I had already put on his overcoat. I wondered if I could get him into his boots. He suggested with a sort of laugh that I look out and see if all the people were off in the boats, or if any boats were left, or how things were.
"I saw a collapsible boat near a funnel and went over to it. Twelve men were trying to boost it down to the boat deck. They were having an awful time. It was the last boat left. I looked at it longingly a few minutes. Then I gave them a hand and over she went. They all started toscramble in on the boat deck, and I walked back to Phillips. I said the last raft had gone.
"Then came the Captain's voice: 'Men, you have done your full duty. You can do no more. Abandon your cabin. Now it's every man for himself. You look out for yourselves. I release you. That's the way of it at this kind of a time. Every man for himself.'
"I looked out. The boat deck was awash. Phillips clung on to sending and sending. He clung on for about ten minutes or maybe fifteen minutes after the Captain had released him. The water was then coming into our cabin.
"While he worked, something happened that I hate to tell about. I was back in my room getting Phillips's money for him, and as I looked out the door, I saw a stoker, or somebody from below decks, leaning over Phillips from behind. He was too busy to notice what the man was doing. The man was slipping the life belt off Phillips's back. He was a big man too. As you can see, I am very small. I don't know what it was I got hold of. I remembered in a flash the way Phillips had clung on - how I had to fix that life belt in place because he was too busy to do it.
"I knew that man from below decks had his own life belt and he should have known where to get it. I suddenly felt a passion not to let that man die a decent sailor's death. I wished he might have stretched rope or walked a plank. I did my duty. I hope I finished him, I don't know. We left him on the cabin floor of the wireless room, and he was not moving."
Please give our link to your friends so they can enjoy reading our posts too. Thanks!
https://thehistorybuff-titanic.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment