With regard to Harry Wilde (to his family and friends he was Harry, not Henry) suffering from crippling depression, the publication of his letters (he was an articulate man and a prolific letter writer) rather knocked that idea on the head. Sadly they haven't been as widely read in the Titanic community as they should have.
The death of Polly Wilde in 1911 on the back of the death of his two sons likely born premature in 1910, had indeed left him suffering from what we would now call clinical depression. Indeed, he mentions not really trying or paying attention during his RNR spell in 1911 and yet to his surprise still manages to pass his courses with high marks.
However, by 1912 his letters show clear, strong evidence that he was beginning to move on.
He remarks that Polly would want him to get on with his life, and then there were the kids. If there is one thing you take away from reading his letters, Wilde was a fiercely devoted father, he writes of knowing that they needed him and he needed them. He wasn't the kind to abandon them forever.
Before taking up his appointment aboard the Titanic, Wilde wrote to his eldest daughter mentioning that he planned to apply for leave and take them all to North Wales for a family holiday.
Then there was the matter of the career he loved.
Wilde had also been told verbally by the WSL that he would be promoted to captain permanently and take command of the Cufic on the Australian run that year. He was very excited about this. It would have been his first permanent command and second overall, having previously taken been acting captain of the Zeeland for one voyage.
The appointment was of course delayed by the coal strike which was frustrating for him. Nonetheless, with the strike now over and things slowly getting back to normal Wilde would have known that the command of the Cufic was now back on the horizon.
The Cufic was also an ideal command for him, she was based in Liverpool, and he could now see his children more often than when he had to serve aboard the Oceanic or Olympic out of Southampton.
He had even bought a new cap, the WSL regulation cap for a captain no less, a few weeks before sailing aboard the Titanic . This cap is still in the possession of his grandchildren.
The evidence for Harry Wilde being in a depressive stupor and welcoming his death aboard the Titanic is not there. Quite the opposite in fact.
Hello Seumas,
I am terribly sorry for my late response to your outstanding post.
I would certainly agree that it seems that chief officer Wilde was moving on mentally from the death of his wife and twin sons. However I don't believe this can rule out him as the officer that shot himself. I shall explain my points so here below.
However I am suffering from a rather severe depression after my beloved ex-girlfriend, Kate Powell, disappeared without a trace in July 2021. Kate and I met on this forum back in May 2020. I can't imagine how painful it must have been for a kind and gentle family-man like Wilde to lose his wife rather suddenly with whom he was married for 13 years, if one considers the pain and loss I feel for the disappearance of the disappearance of the most wonderful lady I love the most (There hasn’t been a sign of life from her since the 23rd of July) I believe the pain Wilde experienced can destroy a man as well. Currently I cannot describe in words how much I miss Kate in my life since I still consider her the kindest, brightest, sweetest and most wonderful person to ever have been in my life. If she somehow reads this I hope she knows that my door is always open for her and that I will welcome her back in my life with the warmest hug possible since .
As I mentioned here I am suffering from a serve depression for as the moment of writing this due to the disappearance of my beloved ex-girlfriend Kate Powell on the 23rd of July 2021. Nearly a half year later there still hasn't been a trace of life from her side despite my best efforts to contact him. I try to the best of my ability to move on mentally, however there are a lot of things getting in the way of things.
During this process there seems to be a lot of things that put me back to where I once was, from being removed from research teams of perhaps the largest project that is involved in recreating the Titanic digitally from seeing another lady I like being taken by some other fellow. Despite the disappearance of my beloved ex-girlfriend I never stopped loving her and miss her every second since that awful day in July. I pray to God she is safe and that she is in good health and spirits. I don't know half the time if I should be happy that I am still alive considering that the most wonderful person in life currently disappeared and all I would wish for is to have her back in my life.
Coming back to the topic, imagine that after nearly 1 and a half years you are slowly getting over the passing of your wife and twin sons, having four surviving children at home (however they are being cared of by a child nurse) and having the certainty of being promoted to a captain in the near future, having already brought the uniform since you served as a captain of the Zeeland the year before. Everything under your watch goes smoothly until the ship hit’s an iceberg at 11:40 during the night. During this disaster, where there are various elements against you. Such as:
- 1 Not enough places in a lifeboat to ensure everyone to be saved.
- 2 No help is expected to arrive in time.
- 3 More than a thousand people are guaranteed to remain on-board, it can be assumed panic will break out near the end.
- 4 With the icebergs nearby the water has a near freezing temperature, people are not expected to survive for long in the water due that.
This disaster has a chance just over 50 percent, on paper that is, that you won't survive the disaster based on these things. You don't know that the real chance is just less than 1/3 that you will survive (32.25%). You bravely prove yourself to be a capable and brave officer with the assisting or even leading the loading of 8 different lifeboats up to that point (lifeboat number 8, 16, 14, 12, 10, 2 and Collapsible Engelhardt lifeboat C and D) and earlier as a precaution you asked for the firearms, to maintain order. You put on a lifebelt on as well. However, now it is near the end of the sinking with the forecastle and forward well deck being submerged. You are assisting your colleagues on the starboard side however than a sudden realization hit’s you:
“The chance that I survive this disaster is quite small considering that I am still on-board the ship with the water coming nearer.”
You realize that after moving on you are put back into a place, a place you never wanted to be in after finally coming back into the light after nearly having lived one and a half year in the dark. There seems to be no time anymore and with the passengers further aft pushing their way forward with force it seems hopeless. To give an example to the other men to let the women through first you fire upon one or two men who pushed their way forward with force, in the hope more woman and children can be brought forward to be placed on the collapsible lifeboat A, which has fallen onto the boat deck. What happens then is pure speculation, since I cannot imagine the stress the killing of another human being can bring. Perhaps he realized that there was a chance that he killed a husband of a woman waiting for her husband at home and/or a father of children, perhaps he realized since the end is near and death was guaranteed he would rather end it quickly with a shot from a bullet instead of freezing to death or perhaps the realization that a shot from a bullet can reunite you faster with your late wife.
I believe that it shall always be a discussed mystery, from the identity of the officer from the time it took place from at which lifeboat it happened. Based on the evidence we have it seems that there is more evidence in favour that first officer Murdoch wasn’t the officer who shot himself then there is evidence that chief officer Wilde wasn’t the officer who shot himself. After 2:05 there are no clear sightings, except for colonel Gracie IV and scullion John Collins, of chief officer Wilde. The last sighting of him on the bridge, in the letter I shall discuss in my next paragraph, seems to be false based on the statement that it came from second officer Lightoller who never mentioned having seen him after the lowering of collapsible Engelhardt lifeboat D. I personally believe that John “Jack” Borland Thayer III his statement here:
"Questions and answers were called around — who was on board, and who was lost, or what they had been seen doing? One call that came around was, “Is the chief aboard?” Whether they meant Mr. Wilde, the chief officer, or the chief engineer, or Capt. Smith, I do not know. I do know that one of the circular life rings from the bridge was there when we got off in the morning. It may be that Capt. Smith was on board with us for a while. Nobody knew where the “Chief ” was."
Doesn’t refer to chief officer Wilde, since all the surviving crewmembers on top of collapsible Engelhardt lifeboat weren’t part of the deck crew, instead they were part of the engine crew (firemen and trimmers) and victualling crew. I personally believe that they could have been referring to either chief engineer Bell, a leading fireman that was with the group that didn’t make it, chief steward Latimer or perhaps third class chief steward Kieran.
On the subject of the Portrush letter, I'm afraid that I don't take Mr Molony's "knockout evidence" of Murdoch's suicide that seriously, I'm afraid.
Mr Molony is very, very careful not to mention whether the so called "Portrush letter" actually, physically exists today. That is highly suspicious.
A court of law for example would not admit evidence of "he heard about from X who heard it from Y who was told about it by Z who read it in a letter". That's just ridiculous.
Let's see the letter if it truly does exist. Alternatively, file under "dubious".
Regarding Senan Molony I have very few mixed views as a historian. In the Titanic community he claimed some things that were damaging to say the least. Such as the sensationalizing the coal fire he started after the pictures taken by John W Kempster (who was the managing director of the electrical works at Harland and Wolff) were discovered from the "Abandoning the Titanic" affair last year. Regarding his views on first officer Murdoch shooting himself I haven't heard much, except that he believes that Murdoch shot his revolver, where he states that he accidentally shot someone's jar off. However, despite that evidence he refers to it appears that none of them describe Murdoch shooting himself, only that he shot someone else.
I hope you are doing well.
Kind regards,
Thomas