The sinking of the Titanic is one of the worst maritime
disasters in history.
Four hours after setting sail, the ship struck an iceberg
in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Within two hours and 40 minutes, it
was sunk, gone beneath the ice cold waves.
Most of the passengers and crew on board
perished in the tragedy.
And if not for a couple of heroes,
it may have been much, much worse.
Who are these heroes?
The Titanic's two telegraphists, Jack Phillips
and his junior operator Harold Bride.
Telegraphist was quite the important job aboard the ship.
They were responsible for all the wireless communication
from the Titanic to other ships and hubs on the mainland.
This meant they were sending plenty
of important navigational notes from ship to ship.
But they were sending even more messages
from wealthy passengers to friends and family back home.
Why?
Well, back in those days, wireless radio
was a new and popular way to communicate. Think of it
kind of like the text message of the early 1900s.
But unlike today, people didn't have devices in their pockets
that could shoot messages back and forth.
So it was up to the ship's wireless radio operators
to handle every single one.
As you might imagine, it was hectic work.
Philips and Bride spent almost all of their time
hastily transmitting messages back and forth for the richest
passengers, while also keeping their eyes out
for messages from other ships.
On the night of the disaster, that
would prove to be a problem of, well, titanic proportions,
less than an hour before the accident, a nearby ship
named the SS California radioed to say they'd encountered
thick fields of ice.
But with so many passengers sending and receiving
messages that night, Jack Phillips
actually got annoyed with the Californian's message
and sent back a now infamous response-- "shut up."
Whoops.
Now it's easy to blame Jack for ignoring the call.
But it's not all his fault. The Californian
didn't start the message with MSG or Master Service Gram.
It was code that marked the message as urgent.
It meant that the ship's captain had
to respond themselves directly.
Since it wasn't marked as high priority,
it wasn't unreasonable for Jack Phillips
to disregard it and focus on the endless stream
of incoming and outgoing notes rather than the Californian's
call that was jamming up his radio.
The rest is history.
At 11:40 PM the iceberg scraped along the starboard side
of the Titanic's hull below the waterline, slicing it open.
It quickly became clear that the colossal cruise
liner was going to sink within a matter of hours.
Yet without blinking, both Phillips and Bride
sprung into action, working nonstop
to send out SOS messages in Morse code
to any vessel that might be nearby.
As the crew scrambled to get people into vests and lifeboats
on the up top, below deck, Phillips and Bride
were hard at work.
Eventually, they were able to make contact
with another ship, the RMS Carpathia who
headed straight for the scene.
By around 2:00 AM, the ship was almost completely out of power.
The ship's captain arrived, telling the brave
men they were relieved of duty.
It was every man for themselves.
But Jack Phillips and Harold Bride didn't go anywhere.
They stayed and continued to try and send messages
to anyone who might be out there.
As things went from bad to worse,
Bride headed for the top deck to help out the crew.
Phillips remained until the very last moment,
sending distress calls until the power went out.
He eventually died in the Arctic waters.
Amazingly, Bride managed to survive.
He was washed off deck and wound up
underneath an overturned lifeboat.
He swam out from underneath and clung
to the slowly sinking boat along with the other survivors.
Eventually, the RMS Carpathia, the ship
that got Phillips and Bride's signal
arrived and rescued everyone they could find that was alive.
If not for Jack Phillips and Harold Bride's heroic actions,
RMS Carpathia would never have come.
And the 705 passengers and crew in the lifeboats and water
would have been left for dead.
True heroes.
And as for the wonky wireless radio system,
well, that got sorted out, too.
Ships today send emergency signals back and forth
automatically.
And in the age of texting, well, now every passenger
can send their own telegram to shore
and with a lot more flair.