Jack Phillips

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John George Phillips
John George Phillips

John George "Jack" Phillips (11 April 1887–15 April 1912) was a British wireless telegraphist who died while serving as senior wireless operator on board the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which sank, after hitting an iceberg, on 15 April 1912. As the Titanic was sinking, Phillips worked tirelessly to send wireless messages to other ships to enlist their assistance with the rescue of the Titanic's passengers and crew.

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[edit] History

John George "Jack" Phillips was born in Farncombe, Surrey, England to George Alfred Phillips and Anne Sanders. Phillips finished private school in Godalming in 1902 and began working at the Godalming post office where he learned telegraphy. He started training to work in wireless for the Marconi Company in March 1906 in Seaforth and graduated five months later in August.

Phillips first assignment was on the White Star Line ship Teutonic and he later worked on board the Campania, the Corsican, the Victorian, the Pretorian, the Lusitania and the Mauretania. In May of 1908 he was assigned to the Marconi station outside Clifden, Ireland, where he worked until 1911, when he was assigned to the Adriatic and later, in early 1912, to the Oceanic.

[edit] RMS Titanic

In March 1912 Phillips was sent to Belfast, Ireland, to be the senior wireless operator on board the RMS Titanic for its maiden voyage. He was joined by junior wireless operator Harold Bride. Stories have appeared that Phillips knew Bride before the Titanic, but Bride insisted they had never met before Belfast.[citation needed] The Titanic sailed for New York City from Southampton, England, on 10 April 1912 and during the voyage Phillips and Bride sent out passengers' personal messages and received iceberg warnings and other navigational information from other ships. Phillips celebrated his 25th birthday on the day after the voyage began.

On the evening of 14 April, in the wireless room on the boat deck, Phillips was sending messages to Cape Race, Newfoundland, working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages that had accumulated when the wireless had broken down the day before. Bride was asleep in the adjoining cabin, intending to relieve Phillips at midnight, two hours early. Shortly after 9:30 pm, Phillips received an ice warning from the steamship Mesaba reporting a large number of icebergs and an ice field directly in the path of Titanic. Phillips acknowledged the Mesaba's warning and continued to transmit messages to Cape Race. The Mesaba's wireless operator waited for Phillips to report that he had given the report to the bridge, but Phillips continued working Cape Race. The warning was one of the most important warnings Titanic received, but for reasons no one is sure about, the warning was never delivered to the bridge.

After 11:00 pm, Phillips was again interrupted by another ship, this time the SS Californian. The Californian's only wireless operator, Cyril Evans, was reporting that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. The Californian was very close and the signal was strong and loud in Phillips' ears. Phillips quickly sent back, "Shut Up! Shut Up! I am working Cape Race," and continued communicating with Cape Race while Evans listened a while longer before going to bed for the night.

The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm that night and began sinking. Bride had woken up and began getting ready to relieve Phillips when Captain Edward Smith came into the wireless room and told Phillips to prepare to send out a distress signal. Shortly after midnight Captain Smith came in again and told them to send out the call for assistance and gave them Titanic's estimated position. Phillips began sending out the distress signal, code CQD, while Bride took messages to Captain Smith about which ships were coming to Titanic's assistance. At one point Bride jokingly reminded Phillips that the new call was SOS and said "Send SOS, it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it." A myth developed after the disaster that this was the first time SOS was used, but it had been used on other ships previously.

After taking a quick break, Phillips returned to the wireless room, reporting to Bride 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. Bride later remembered being moved by the way Phillips continued working. While their backs were turned, a crew member sneaked in and attempted to steal Phillips' lifebelt. Bride saw and grabbed the man as Phillips stood up and knocked the crew member out. The water was beginning to flood the boat deck as they both ran out of the wireless room. The men then split up, Bride heading forward and Phillips heading aft.

Phillips managed to make it to the overturned lifeboat B, the same lifeboat that Bride was on, but he died before rescue came. However, because of inconsistencies in witnesses' statements and Bride's testimony that he never saw Phillips on the boat, but was only told he was aboard by someone else,[1] some Titanic historians dispute the claim that Phillips was on the lifeboat. After the disaster and Harold Bride's description of what happened that night was published, Phillips was considered a hero for his efforts in contacting other ships to come to Titanic's assistance, largely forgetting his negligence and hostile behavior toward the wireless operators of other ships, that were trying to help Titanic out of the iceberg fields.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ RMS Titanic's Chief Radio Officer John George ("Jack") Phillips. The RMS Titanic Radio Page. Retrieved on July 26, 2005.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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