Harold Bride

**Harold Sydney Bride** (January 11th, 1890 - April 29th, 1956) was the junior wireless officer on board the maiden voyage of the RMS *Titanic*. Harold Bride worked along with Jack Phillips in the wireless room. On the night of the sinking, they helped to inform the captain of *Titanic*, Captain Smith, about the ships coming to *Titanic*'s assistance.

After the *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. He was 22 at the time of the sinking.

Harold Bride died of lung cancer on April 29th, 1956; his ashes were scattered at Glasgow Crematorium Chapel, Glasgow, Scotland.

## Early history

Harold Bride was born in Nunhead, London, England on January 11th, 1890 to Arthur Bride and Mary Ann Lowe. 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 of 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*.

## 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. The *Titanic* left on its maiden voyage to New York City from Southampton on April 10th. During the voyage, from the wireless room on the Boat deck, Bride and Phillips sent out passengers' personal messages and received iceberg warnings from other ships.

On the evening of April 14th, 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 backlog of passengers' personal messages being sent to Cape Race, Newfoundland.

### Sinking

The *Titanic* hit an iceberg at 11:40 P.M. 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 SS *Mount Temple* was on the other side of the ice field and wouldn't be able to reach them. The second closest ship, 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 dressed 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. Water just came into the room, shallow as a droplet. Rising quickly every second. It was around 2:13 AM.

"*I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off women and children in lifeboats. I noticed that the list forward was 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 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 continued to work through it I don't know. He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly felt 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 during the last awful fifteen minutes.* *I looked out. The boat deck was awash. Phillips clung on 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 I hate to tell about. I was back at 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. Phillips was too busy to notice what the man was doing. The man was slipping the life belt off Phillips's back.*"
### Collapsible lifeboat B

Water was beginning to flood the wireless room as they ran out of the wireless room. 2:14 AM. The operators climbed on the roof of the Officer's Quarters. Bride helped remove one of the last two lifeboats, Collapsible B, off the roof of the officer's quarters. At that same moment, Phillips ran towards the stern, that was the last Bride saw him. The crew was unable to launch the boat before it was washed off the deck. Bride was also washed off the deck and Bride was pulled under by the suction, and found himself beneath the overturned boat. After a time of great fear, he swam out from under and held himself onto the boat. Shortly after the ship went under, Bride climbed onto the boat, on which he and fifteen other men were able to survive, although the collapsible was waterlogged and slowly sinking. Bride and the others on B were later assisted into other lifeboats and were eventually taken aboard the RMS *Carpathia*.

"*One man was dead. I passed him and went up the ladder, although my feet pained terribly. The dead man was Phillips. He had died on the raft from exposure and cold, I guess. He had been all in from work before the wreck came. He stood his ground until the crisis had passed, and then he collapsed, I guess. But I hardly thought that then. I didn't think much of anything. I tried the rope ladder. My feet pained terribly, but I got to the top and felt hands reaching out to me. The next I knew a woman was leaning over me in a cabin and I felt her hand waving back my hair and rubbing my face.*"    - Bride describing the rescue by the *Carpathia*
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. According to *Encyclopedia Titanica*: "Incidentally, Bride and Cottam had met before the disaster and were good friends. After the tragedy they stayed in contact for many years."

## Post–*Titanic*

Bride, who had to be carried off the *Carpathia* because of his injuries to his feet (one was badly sprained, the other frostbitten), was met in New York City by Guglielmo Marconi and *The New York Times*, which gave Bride $1,000 for his exclusive story. Bride later gave testimony in the American and British inquiries into the *Titanic* disaster, describing what iceberg warnings had been received and what had happened the night of the disaster.

In the American Inquiry, Bride was also questioned about ignoring requests for information, while working on the *Carpathia*, 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 stated 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 they arrived in New York, but Marconi denied the accusations. This matter was not pursued, and Bride was considered one of the heroes of the disaster.

Despite being a key witness in the inquiries, Bride kept a low profile after the sinking. Before *Titanic*, on March 16th, 1912; he became engaged to Mabel Ludlow, but he broke off the engagement in September when he met Lucy Downie, whom he married on April 10th, 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 Glasgow, where Bride became a salesman. They had three children: Lucy in 1921, John in 1924, and Jeanette in 1929.