STORY OF HAROLD BRIDE, THE SURVIVING WIRELESS OPERATOR OF THE TITANIC,
WHO WAS WASHED OVERBOARD AND RESCUED BY LIFE-BOAT--BAND PLAYED RAG-TIME
AND "AUTUMN"
ONE of the most connected and detailed accounts of the horrible disaster
was that told by Harold Bride, the wireless operator. Mr. Bride said:
"I was standing by Phillips, the chief operator, telling him to go to
bed, when the captain put his head in the cabin.
"'We've struck an iceberg,' the captain said, 'and I'm having an
inspection made to tell what it has done for us. You better get ready to
send out a call for assistance. But don't send it until I tell you.'
"The captain went away and in ten minutes, I should estimate the time,
he came back. We could hear a terrific confusion outside, but there was
not the least thing to indicate that there was any trouble. The wireless
was working perfectly.
"'Send the call for assistance,' ordered the captain, barely putting
his head in the door.
"'What call shall I send?' Phillips asked.
"'The regulation international call for help. Just that.'
"Then the captain was gone Phillips began to send 'C. Q. D.' He flashed
away at it and we joked while he did so. All of us made light of the
disaster.
"The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our position and said we
were sinking by the head. The operator went to tell the captain, and in
five minutes returned and told us that the captain of the Carpathia, was
putting about and heading for us
GREAT SCRAMBLE ON DECK
"Our captain had left us at this time and Phillips told me to run and
tell him what the Carpathia had answered. I did so, and I went through
an awful mass of people to his cabin. The decks were full of scrambling
men and women. I saw no fighting, but I heard tell of it.
"I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia fuller directions.
Phillips told me to put on my clothes. Until that moment I forgot that I
was not dressed.
"I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat to Phillips. It
was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon him while he worked.
"Every few minutes Phillips would send me to the captain with little
messages. They were merely telling how the Carpathia was coming our way
and gave her speed.
"I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off
women and children in life-boats. 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 out 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
worked through it right to the end I don't know.
"He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly
felt for him 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 for the last awful fifteen minutes.
"I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything
detached that would float. I remembered that every member of the crew
had a special life-belt and ought to know where it was. I remembered
mine was under my bunk. I went and got it. Then I thought how cold the
water was.
"I remembered I had an extra jacket and a pair of boots, and I put them
on. I saw Phillips standing out there still sending away, giving the
Carpathia details of just how we were doing.
"We picked up the Olympic and told her we were sinking by the head and
were about all down. As Phillips was sending the message I strapped his
life-belt to his back. I had already put on his overcoat. Every minute
was precious, so I helped him all I could.
BAND PLAYS IN RAG-TIME
"From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a rag-time tune, I don't
know what. Then there was 'Autumn.' Phillips ran aft and that was the
last I ever saw of him.
"I went to the place where I had seen a collapsible boat on the boat
deck, and to my surprise I saw the boat and the men still trying to push
it off. I guess there wasn't a sailor in the crowd. They couldn't do
it. I went up to them and was just lending a hand when a large wave came
awash of the deck.
"The big wave carried the boat off. I had hold of a row-lock and I went
off with it. The next I knew I was in the boat.
"But that was not all. I was in the boat and the boat was upside down
and I was under it. And I remember realizing I was wet through, and that
whatever happened I must not breathe, for I was under water.
"I knew I had to fight for it and I did. How I got out from under the
boat I do not know, but I felt a breath of air at last.
"There were men all around me hundreds of them. The sea was dotted with
them, all depending on their life-belts. I felt I simply had to get away
from the ship. She was a beautiful sight then.
"Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel, and there must have
been an explosion, but we had heard none. We only saw the big stream of
sparks. The ship was gradually turning on her nose just like a duck does
that goes down for a dive. I had one thing on my mind--to get away from
the suction. The band was still playing, and I guess they all went down.
"They were playing 'Autumn' then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I
was 150 feet away when the Titanic, on her nose, with her after-quarter
sticking straight up in the air, began to settle slowly.
"When at last the waves washed over her rudder there wasn't the least
bit of suction I could feel. She must have kept going just as slowly as
she had been.
"I forgot to mention that, besides the Olympic and Carpathia, we spoke
some German boat, I don't know which, and told them how we were. We also
spoke the Baltic. I remembered those things as I began to figure what
ships would be coming toward us.
"I felt, after a little while, like sinking. I was very cold. I saw a
boat of some kind near me and put all my strength into an effort to swim
to it. It was hard work. I was all done when a hand reached out from the
boat and pulled me aboard. It was our same collapsible.
"There was just room for me to roll on the edge. I lay there, not caring
what happened. Somebody sat on my legs; they were wedged in between
slats and were being wrenched. I had not the heart left to ask the man
to move. It was a terrible sight all around--men swimming and sinking.
"I lay where I was, letting the man wrench my feet out of shape. Others
came near. Nobody gave them a hand. The bottom-up boat already had more
men than it would hold and it was sinking.
"At first the larger waves splashed over my head and I had to breathe
when I could.
"Some splendid people saved us. They had a right-side-up boat, and it
was full to its capacity. Yet they came to us and loaded us all into it.
I saw some lights off in the distance and knew a steamship was coming to
our aid.
"I didn't care what happened. I just lay, and gasped when I could and
felt the pain in my feet. At last the Carpathia was alongside and the
people were being taken up a rope ladder. Our boat drew near, and one
b{y} one the men were taken off of it.
"The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I heard it first while
we were working wireless, when there was a rag-time tune for us, and
the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea, with my
life-belt on, it was still on deck playing 'Autumn.' How they ever did
it I cannot imagine.
"That and the way Phillips kept sending after the captain told him his
life was his own, and to look out for himself, are two things that stand
out in my mind over all the rest."