SURVIVING OPERATOR’S EXPERIENCES.
Surviving Operator’s Experiences--Tells Senator How He Escaped--Tale
of Suffering and Death--Managing Director’s Flight Balked--Long Hours
and Low Wages for Wireless Men--Refused Help from Frankfurt--Called
Its Operator a Fool--Laxity of Wireless--Denies Sending “Saved”
Message--Gave Warning of Ice.
With J. Bruce Ismay, managing director, and P. A. S. Franklin, general
manager of the White Star Line, Harold Thomas Cottam, wireless operator
on the Carpathia; Harold Bride, surviving operator of the Titanic,
the five surviving officers from the ill-fated ship and thirty of her
seamen in the custody of the sergeant-at-arms of the United States
Senate, Senator Smith, of Michigan, and Francis G. Newlands, of Nevada,
brought their investigation of the greatest sea horror of modern times
to a close so far as New York was concerned.
When the men of the Titanic, British seamen, had been heard under oath
by the committee they were allowed to return to their homes, where they
were subject to the call of their own government.
“We must hear the Englishmen first,” said Chairman Smith, a few
minutes before he and Senator Newlands left shortly after midnight for
Washington, “because they need to get back home as soon as possible. We
will be able to get the Americans whenever we want them.”
It had been suggested to Chairman Smith that the British Government
might offer objections to the keeping of British seamen in this country
under the circumstances.
“I am proceeding,” said Mr. Smith, “just as if there was not the
slightest possibility of such a protest. Should one come we will deal
with it at that time.”
The committee had in mind the drafting of important legislation as the
result of its hearing. Regulation of the use of the air by wireless
operators so as to prevent interference in times of wreck at sea is
one law that seemed almost sure to be enacted. Another was legislation
requiring not only American, but all foreign vessels using American
ports to be equipped with enough lifeboats to take off every passenger
and every member of the ship’s crew if need be. Patrol of the steamship
lanes for icebergs was another.
It seemed likewise not at all unlikely that the committee would
recommend and Congress enact a law requiring ships, at least those
under American registry, to carry two operators so that one may be on
duty while the other sleeps. The President seemed likely to be asked by
a joint resolution of Congress to open negotiations with foreign powers
to establish a new and much more southerly steamship lane across the
Atlantic by international agreement.
SENATE TO PROBE FALSE MESSAGE.
It developed that the Senate Committee intended to make one of the most
important features of its probing work and examination in the false
messages that were given out by the White Star Line office in New York
on Monday when it was said that the Titanic had struck an iceberg, but
that she was in tow of the Virginian, which was taking her to Halifax
and that all on board were safe.
Incident to the sudden close of the hearing was the story of Harold S.
Bride, the second and only surviving wireless operator of the Titanic.
His tale was one of suffering and of death.
He told of the final plunge of the vessel to its ocean burial. Its
captain’s end also was revealed. He leaped from the bridge when the
waters were closing over his ship.
In connection with the transfer of the hearing to Washington it was
intimated that the power of the Senate on federal territory would be
undisputed in getting at the real facts and no question of State rights
could arise to interfere.
Throughout the hearing, also, officials of the White Star Line had
portrayed the dangers of sailors’ boarding houses in New York as a
reason why those detained by the committee should be allowed to sail on
the Lapland, which left today.
Throughout the hearing Wireless Operator Bride, crippled as a result of
his experiences and seated in an invalid’s chair, told his story of the
last moments of the Titanic.
His narrative, drawn from him piecemeal by Senator Smith, of Michigan,
chairman of the committee, held enthralled the committee and the
audience.
When his ordeal was ended he was almost on the verge of collapse.
THE LAXITY OF THE WIRELESS
Another phase of the laxity of the wireless, so far as man is
concerned, was developed by the chairman. He drew from the witness an
acknowledgment that on Sunday evening Bride was sitting, the telephonic
apparatus strapped to his ears, adjusting his accounts, while the
steamship Californian, seeking to warn the Titanic that icebergs were
invading the lanes of ocean travel, called incessantly.
Bride said he heard the call but did not answer because he was “busy.”
It was not until a half hour later that the Californian, striving to
reach the steamship Baltic, reached also the Titanic, whereupon the
warning that three huge icebergs had been sighted, was noted by Bride
and verbally communicated to the liner’s captain.
“At this time, however, neither of us worried a bit. When we heard the
confusion on deck I went out to investigate and when I returned I found
Mr. Phillips sending out a “C. Q. D.” call, giving our position.
“We raised the Frankfurt first and then the Carpathia and the Baltic.
As I have said, we did not try for the Frankfurt for any length
of time, but concentrated our messages on the Carpathia, which had
answered that she was rushing to our aid.”
“From time to time either Mr. Phillips or I would go on deck to observe
the situation. The last time I went on deck I found the passengers
running around in confusion and there was almost a panic.
“They were seeking lifebelts. All of the large lifeboats were gone, but
there was one liferaft remaining. It had been lashed on the top of the
quarters on the boat deck. A number of men were striving to launch it.
“I went back to the wireless cabin then. Mr. Phillips was striving to
send out a final ‘C. Q. D.’ call. The power was so low that we could
not tell exactly whether it was being carried or not, for we were in a
closed cabin and we could not hear the crackle of the wireless at the
mast.
BOTH CARED FOR A WOMAN
Phillips kept on sending, however, while I buckled on his lifebelt and
put on my own. Then we both cared for a woman who had fainted and who
had been brought into our cabin.
“Then, about ten minutes before the ship sank, Captain Smith gave
word for every one to look to his own safety. I sprang to aid the men
struggling to launch the liferaft and we had succeeded in getting it to
the edge of the boat when a giant wave carried it away.
“I went with it and found myself underneath. Struggling through an
eternity, I finally emerged and was swimming one hundred and fifty feet
from the Titanic when she went down. I felt no suction as the vessel
plunged.
“I did not see Mr. Ismay at all. Captain Smith stuck to the bridge and,
turning, I saw him jump just as the vessel glided into the depths. He
had not donned a life belt, so far as I could see, and went down with
the ship.”
The witness showed so plainly the mental and physical strain under
which he was laboring that both Senators Newlands and Reed urged
Senator Smith to excuse him. After a few more interrogations Senator
Smith did so.
“I regret extremely having had to subject you to such an ordeal,”
he said, addressing Bride, “because of your condition. I would have
avoided it, if possible, but the committee thanks you most heartily for
the forbearance you have shown and the frankness of your testimony.”
Senator Smith then called what he evidently expected to be one of the
most important witnesses, Harold S. Bride, the sole surviving wireless
operator of the Titanic.
Crippled as a result of his experiences, he was wheeled in an invalid’s
chair to the table where the committee sat.
“Contrary to the usual procedure,” said Senator Smith, rising in his
place, “I must place you under oath. Raise your right hand.”
SENATE REPEATS THE OATH.
The witness, hand uplifted, listened while the Senator repeated the
oath. Then he bowed in assent. Bride said he was a native of London,
was 22 years old and had learned his profession in a British school of
telegraphy.
“What practical experience have you had?” asked Senator Smith.
“I have crossed to the States three times and to Brazil twice,” said
Bride.
Bride remembered receiving and sending messages relative to the speed
of the Titanic on its trial tests. After leaving Southampton on the
Titanic’s fatal trip he could not remember receiving or sending any
messages for Ismay. Senator Smith asked particularly about messages on
Sunday.
“I don’t remember, sir,” said Bride. “There was so much business
Sunday.”
He was asked if Captain Smith received or sent any messages Sunday.
“No, sir,” was the reply.
“How do you know he did not?”
“Because I see the messages Mr. Phillips takes when they are made up.”
“Were those for Sunday made up?”
“No, they never were.”
After testifying he made no permanent record of the iceberg warnings,
Bride insisted he gave the memorandum of the warning to the officer on
the watch. The name of the officer he could not tell.
“I know the officers by sight but not by name,” he said. He did not
inform Captain Smith.
Bride said he was in bed when the impact came. He was not alarmed at
the collision and remained in bed about ten minutes. He saw Phillips in
the operating room.
“He told me he thought the boat had been injured in some way and he
expected it would have to go back to the builders,” said Bride.
BETTER SEND OUT A CALL FOR ASSISTANCE.
The witness said that according to arrangement he relieved Phillips.
“Immediately the captain came in and said we had better send out a call
for assistance,” testified Bride. “Phillips asked if he wanted to send
a distress call. The captain said he did. I could read what Phillips
sent--C. Q. D.”
“How soon did he get a reply?”
“As far as I know, immediately. I could not hear what he received,
however.”
The witness told of having intercepted a message from the Californian
intended for the Baltic, which told of the presence of three huge
icebergs in the vicinity of the former vessel.
“I gave the message to the captain personally,” he said.
Bride did not take down the message and could not give its precise
form. “The Californian was seeking out the Baltic, and I merely noted
that it was an ice report and told the captain,” he said.
Under a fire of questions Bride acknowledged that a half hour
previously, or at 4.30 Sunday afternoon, he was working on his
accounts in the wireless room when he heard the Californian trying to
raise the Titanic. He did not respond, he said, because, he was “busy.”
“You had the telephone apparatus at your ear?” inquired Senator Smith,
in surprise.
“Yes, sir.”
“And you did not respond to the call?”
“No, sir.”
“Then a half hour later on, about five hours before the disaster, you
took the message when it was intended for another vessel, the Baltic?”
“Yes, sir.”
In an effort to determine whether the signal “C. Q. D.” might not have
been misunderstood by passing ships Senator Smith called upon Mr.
Marconi.
MEANING OF DIFFERENT CALLS.
“The C. Q.,” said Mr. Marconi, “is an international signal which meant
that all stations should cease sending except the one using the call.
The ‘D’ was added to indicate danger. The call, however, now has been
superseded by the universal call, ‘S. O. S’.”
Senator Smith then resumed the direct examination of Bride, who has
said the North German Lloyd was the first to answer the Titanic’s
distress signal.
“Have you heard it said that the Frankfurt was the ship nearest to the
Titanic?” the senator asked.
“Yes, sir; Mr. Phillips told me that.”
“How did he know?”
“By the strength of the signals,” said the witness, who added that the
Carpathia answered shortly after.
The witness said that twenty minutes later the Frankfurt operator
interrupted to ask “what was the matter?”
“What did you reply?” the senator inquired.
“Mr. Phillips said he was a fool and told him to keep out.”
There was no further effort to get the Frankfurt’s position.
Time after time Senator Smith asked in varying forms why the Titanic
did not explain in detail its condition to the Frankfurt.
“Any operator receiving C. Q. D. and the position of the ship, if he is
on the job,” said Bride, “would tell the captain at once.”
“Ask him if it would have taken longer to have sent ‘You are a fool,
keep out,’ than ‘we are sinking?’” suggested Senator Reed.
“Was your object in dismissing the somewhat tardy inquiry of the
Frankfurt due to your desire to hang on to a certainty, the Carpathia?”
inquired Senator Smith.
The witness said it was. “But under the circumstances could you not
with propriety send a detailed message to the Frankfurt?” Senator Smith
insisted.
“I did not think we could under the circumstances.”
BRIDE INTERROGATED.
“Would you still make the same reply if you were told that the
Frankfurt was twenty miles nearer to you than the Carpathia?”
Bride replied that the Carpathia was then on its way with its lifeboats
ready.
Mr. Marconi testified to the distress signals and said the Frankfurt
was equipped with Marconi wireless. He said the receipts of the signals
C. Q. D. by the Frankfurt’s operator should have been all sufficient to
send the Frankfurt to the immediate rescue.
Under questioning by Senator Smith Bride said that undoubtedly the
Frankfurt received all of the urgent appeals for help sent subsequently
to the Carpathia.
“Why did you not send the messages to the Frankfurt as well as to the
Carpathia?” asked Senator Smith.
“He would not have understood.”
The witness said that before leaving the cabin ten minutes before
the ship went down Phillips sent out a final C. Q. D. There was no
response, Bride saying the spark was then so weak that it probably did
not carry.
When Bride and Phillips stepped out on the beatdeck he said they found
persons rushing around in confusion. They were seeking life belts.
“There were no big lifeboats aboard at that time,” said Bride. “There
was a life raft over the officers quarters, which later was lost over
the side.”
The witness then told of his experience in following with a small boat
beneath which he nearly was drowned before he could extricate himself.
With a number of other survivors he clambored on the overturned boat.
“One of these was Phillips,” said the witness. “He died on the way to
the Carpathia and was buried later at sea.”
When Bride gained the bottom of the boat he found between 35 and 40 men
already there.
THE LAST MAN ABOARD.
“I was the last man invited aboard,” said Bride.
“Did any others seek to get on?”
“Yes, sir, dozens. We couldn’t take them.”
The witness said he did not see J. Bruce Ismay, and that the last he
saw of Captain Smith he was in the act of jumping from the bridge just
as the ship went down. He said he was swimming within 150 feet of the
ship when it went down and that he felt no suction.
Long before the hearing was resumed in the afternoon crowds besieged
the Waldorf-Astoria rooms, but few who had not been sought by the
committee were admitted.
C. P. Neil, commissioner of labor of the Department of Commerce and
Labor, and Representatives Levy and Livingston, of New York, were among
the visitors.
Senators Smith and Newlands conferred after luncheon for more than an
hour, and it was nearly 4 o’clock when they reached the committee room.
“Is Mr. Bride, the operator of the Titanic, here?” Senator Smith asked
of Mr. Marconi and Mr. Sammis, of the Marconi Company.
They told him that Mr. Bride had been sent to a physician, but could
be brought back later. The senator said he wanted to ask the operator
several additional questions, but could postpone them.
The second officer of the Titanic, C. H. Lightoller, was called by
Senator Smith, but was not present, and the third officer of the
Titanic, Herbert John Pittman, took the stand.
“Do you know of your own knowledge whether the Titanic’s ship’s log was
preserved or taken from the Titanic?” asked Senator Smith.
“I do not.”
After the hearing adjourned Senator Smith made a statement to the press
in which he explained the intentions of the committee. He said:
“The object of the committee in coming to New York coincidental with
the arrival of the Carpathia was prompted by the desire to avail itself
of first-hand information from the active participants in this sad
affair. Our course has been guided solely by this purpose--to obtain
accurate information without delay.”