Harold Sydney Bride

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Harold Sydney Bride (11 January 1890 – 29 April 1956) was born in London, England, and later became the Junior Wireless officer on board the maiden voyage of the ocean liner RMS Titanic. The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm 14 April 1912 and sank two hours and forty minutes later. Working with Jack Phillips, Bride helped inform Titanic's Captain Smith about the ships coming to Titanic's assistance. The next morning, after Titanic sank, Bride was rescued by the RMS Carpathia and despite being injured, helped the Carpathia's wireless operator transmit survivor lists and personal messages from the ship.

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[edit] Early history

Harold Bride was born in Nunhead, London, England in 1890 to Arthur Bride and Mary Ann Lowe. The youngest of five children, Bride lived with his family in Bromley. After primary school Bride decided he wanted to become a wireless operator and he worked in his family's business to help pay for training. He completed training for the Marconi Company in July, 1911. Working for Marconi, his first sea assignment as a wireless operator was on the Haverford and later worked on the Beaverford, the LaFrance, the Lusitania, and the Anselm.

[edit] RMS Titanic

In 1912 Bride joined the White Star Line ocean liner RMS Titanic as the Junior Wireless operator and assistant to John "Jack" Phillips at Belfast, Ireland. Stories have appeared that Bride knew Phillips before Titanic, but Bride insisted that they had never met before Belfast.[1] The Titanic left on its maiden voyage to New York City from Southampton, England on 10 April. During the voyage, from the wireless room on the Boat deck, Bride and Phillips sent out passenger's personal messages and received iceberg warnings from other ships.

On the evening of 14 April 1912 Bride had gone to bed early in preparation to relieve Jack Phillips at midnight, two hours earlier than normal. The wireless had not been working earlier and Phillips was busy catching up on a back log of passenger personal messages being sent to Cape Race, Newfoundland.

The Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm that night and began sinking. Bride woke up shortly after and asked Phillips what was happening. Phillips said they struck something; Bride acknowledged Phillips and began to get ready to go on duty. Captain Edward Smith soon came into the wireless room alerting Bride and Phillips to be ready to send out a distress signal. Shortly after midnight he came in and told them to request help and gave them the ship's position.

Jack Phillips sent out CQD while Bride took messages to the Captain about which ships were coming to Titanic's assistance. However, the closest ship to respond, the RMS Carpathia, wouldn’t reach Titanic until after it sank. At one point Bride reminded Phillips that the new code was SOS and jokingly said, "Send SOS, it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it." Later Phillips took a quick break and Bride took over the wireless. Phillips soon returned to the wireless room reporting that the forward part of the ship was flooded and that they should put on more clothes and lifebelts. Bride began to get ready while Phillips went back to work on the wireless machine.

The wireless power was almost completely out when Captain Smith arrived and told the men that they had done their duty and that they were relieved. Phillips continued working while Bride gathered some money and personal belongings. When his back was turned a crew member had sneaked in and was taking Phillips' lifebelt. Bride saw and grabbed the man while Phillips stood up and knocked the crew member out. The water was beginning to flood the boat deck as they ran out of the wireless room and Bride began helping remove one of the last two lifeboats, lifeboat B, off the roof of the officer's quarters. The crew was unable to launch the lifeboat before it was washed off the deck upside down; Bride was also washed off the deck and found himself under the overturned lifeboat. He swam out from under the lifeboat and climbed onto it and he and fifteen other men were able to survive on the slowly sinking lifeboat; however Phillips, who had also made it to lifeboat B, died before rescue came. Bride and the others on lifeboat B were later rescued by other nearby lifeboats and they slowly rowed towards the rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, which had arrived on the scene.

On the Carpathia, the seriously injured Bride rested, and later helped the Carpathia's wireless operator, Harold Cottam, send out the large number of personal messages from the survivors.

[edit] Post–Titanic

Bride, who had to be carried off the Carpathia because of his injuries to his feet, was met in New York City by Guglielmo Marconi and The New York Times which gave Bride $1000 for his exclusive story. Bride later gave testimony in the American and British inquiries into the Titanic disaster describing what iceberg warnings were received and what happened the night of the disaster.

In the American Inquiry Bride was also questioned about, while working on the Carpathia, ignoring requests for information about the disaster from the press and the U.S. Navy, which wanted to know the fate of President Taft's personal friend and aide Archibald Butt. Bride said that priority was given to personal messages and survivor lists over answering questions from the press and claimed that the Navy did not understand European Morse signals, which the Navy denied. The Marconi Company was accused of secretly setting up the New York Times interview with Bride and telling him and Harold Cottam to keep quiet until New York, but Marconi denied the accusations. Investigations were not pressed into the matter however, and Bride was considered a hero of the disaster despite the fact he did nothing to deserve the title.[2]

Despite being a key witness in the inquiries, Bride kept a low profile after the sinking. Before Titanic, on 16 March 1912 he became engaged to Mabel Ludlow, but broke off the engagement in September when he met Lucy Downie whom he married on 10 April 1920. During World War I Bride served as the wireless operator on the steamship Mona’s Isle and in 1922 he and Lucy moved to Scotland where Bride became a salesman. They had three children, Lucy in 1921, John in 1924 and Jeanette in 1929.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Lane, Allison and Parks Stephenson. Mr John George Phillips. Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved on July 23, 2005.
  2. ^ Rutman, Sharon and Jay Stevenson (1998). The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Titanic. Alpha Books. ISBN 0-02-862712-1. 

[edit] References