Before reading this post, please read the first part of this two-part series linked here Part 1.

The Evening of April 13^th, 1912. Titanic is three days into her Maiden Voyage to New York City and is steaming across the Atlantic at near full speed. Titanic’s Marconi Wireless Operators Jack Philips and Harold Bride are hard at work sending multiple private telegrams to the mainland for many of Titanic’s wealthy passengers. Unfortunately, the two operators are soon stopped by a malfunction of the ship’s main wireless system rendering it inoperable.

Titanic’s main wireless system allowed the ship to send and receive telegraphs from roughly 300-500 miles. However, the ship was also equipped with an emergency backup system with a range of roughly 50 miles which was operational.

Now the Marconi Wireless Company, who created and installed the system on board Titanic, had very strict rules at the time for dealing with a situation like this. In the event of a malfunction or breakdown, the operators were to shut down the system and leave the system alone until the ship reached port where an official Marconi Wireless Technician would come and fix the system. This rule was put in place as these systems were cutting edge for the time and if operators attempted to fix these systems themselves they could end up causing serious damage.

That should have been the end of the story. Jack and Harold shut down the main system as per instructed and the Titanic is left with only her backup wireless system. The next night Titanic strikes an iceberg on her starboard side. Captain Smith orders Jack and Harold to send out a distress message but the only ship within her range is the Californian whose wireless operator has already retired for the night. Thus, with no other ships coming to render aid and no one from the outside world aware of the unfolding disaster, Titanic ends up as the world’s largest maritime mystery. So why didn’t that happen?

For the real story to make sense, a brief explanation of wireless operators of the time is in order. See wireless technology was considered very “cool” by the young tech nerds of the early 1900s. I suppose you could call these operators the Crypto Bros of their day. These operators were often young men in their late teens or early 20s who often talked to each other over telegraph with slang nicknames such as “old man” when referring to another operator. They were also known to be quite rude and sarcastic with each other but all within good fun like an online discord call today between friends. What I’m saying is these operators were very smart and very curious.

Alright, so now that we know a bit about what Titanic’s wireless operators were like, that leads us back to why Titanic’s fate didn’t end up a mystery. See despite the explicit policy of the Marconi Company, Harold and Philip were eager to jump at the chance to fiddle around with one of the largest and newest wireless systems ever created. Furthermore, while they may have normally followed protocol, this was the largest ship in the world’s maiden voyage and some of the richest and most famous people in the world were on board. To lose the wireless system would mean that all these people’s very expensive messages would have to be undelivered, leaving a blemish on the ships high profile voyage. Thus, with both of these factors in play Harold and Philip decide to work through the night attempting to fix Titanic’s wireless system, and fix it they did.

This brings us back to reality. With the wireless system fixed everything else played out like the story we all know. The next night Titanic struck an iceberg and with her wireless system fully operational the RMS Carpathia which was 58 miles from the Titanic received her distress call. Carpathia would then be the ship to rescue Titanic’s passengers the following morning. Harold and Philip would continue to send distress messages well into the sinking. Captain Smith would even come to personally relieve the operators roughly 2 hours after the impact with the iceberg stating they had done their duty and were relieved. However, both men continued to send messages until water started to fill the wireless room. See Jack Philip’s Wikipedia Page for more information.  

In the end, Harold and Philip would split up after leaving the wireless room and while Harold would survive the sinking, Jack Philips would go down with the ship. These two men’s decision to fix the wireless system unknowingly saved hundreds of lives that night and I hope that this knowledge may help both of them to rest in peace. Both of these posts are dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives that cold April night in 1912. May their memory live on forever in stories like these and please keep Titanic survivors in your memories and prayers this coming and every April 14^th.