Harold Bride

[Emily Bisignano]

. . . and just imagine personally knowing all 1500 people that went under like they were your best friends. I can especially relate to all the immigrants lost on the Titanic because they were my people. I can relate to a vast majority of them since I have a many nationalities in my family background. I know a lot about the immigration to America during the early 1900's and I can feel the pain of the ones that couldn't make it. . .that one fateful night. . .

 

[Charmaine Sia]

Matthew,

Thank you very very much for sharing your story with us. It is indeed very touching and heartwarming to know of events like this, and to know that people are remembered years after they die, even when everything else is gone.

<FONT COLOR="aa00aa">And the reason i bring that all up is simple, (and by the way ive never told a single soul that story above), and that is simply when i see that someone who is as bright, articulate, well spoken and such a great hope for future representaion of this country, when you see that this person not only remembers a wireless operator, but speaks with her heart and open affection that she would give a major body part to see the man smile, then yes, that affects me.I got misty eyed reading the comments.

I got misty eyed reading this thread alone. I can understand the longing to see a smile on the face of a man who has been tormented by something as terrible as the sinking of the Titanic. Wireless operator or not, Bride suffered a lot from the incident, and that's enough to make us feel bad about it. I hope that now he rests in peace and that he is with the friend ("brother" in fact) that he lost so long ago.

>He spoke glowingly of the work of his partner that night, Phillips, and said at one point "i learned to love the man that night".

><FONT COLOR="ff0000">Phillips and Bride were lucky to get to board the same ship.

I can't even imagine how Bride has felt after the loss of his friend.

It must have been hard on Bride to lose a friend who had guided him all this while. They had been close together, and helped each other out when the ship was about to sink. As Bride said, "I learned to love the man that night," to lose someone you were so close to and whom you had newly-found a kinship to must have been very painful. Especially the way Bride stopped the man stealing Phillip's lifebelt, of course in the hope that they would both make it out of the ship, and later to find out that while Bride had survived, Phillips had died of hypothermia in the water. I think the greatest irony is that Phillips told Bride to dress warmly, but eventually Phillips was the one who died of hypothermia - it's as though he helped his friend so much that he didn't survive eventually.

Warmest regards,
Charmaine
with thanks to Allison and Matthew

 

[matthew Sims]

Thank Allison for all that. She raised my interest levels, by putting a perspective on it i never would have thought of. This young lady does not realise the incredible gift she has of seeing the very soul of people, the things that remind us what its all about..I pale in comparison to her and her intellect

 

[Allison Lane]

Good grief, you guys... I'm not the goddess it feels like you're making me out to be.

Honestly, though, Harold Bride and Jack Phillips utterly fascinate me, and not much thrills me more than to just simply learn about them and what they were like as people. I wish very much that I could have known them. And that I could see a picture of Bride smiling, because in every picture I've ever seen of him he looks so solemn.

And it flatters me that I've inspired someone to do their own researching... I didn't think I was capable of anything like that.

At least now that I'm home from college for a little while I can go back to scouring contemporary issues of the New York Times for articles pertaining to the merry wireless men, etc., which has been one of my pet projects for some time.

-Allison L.

 

[matthew Sims]

Allison-Thats what i try and tell you all the time, you do inspire people. Sometimes we forget the very basic fabrics of what make us human. You, in your wonderfully introperspective thoughts, make people remember that. I feel sorry for both those men. How could you not? They knew they suddenly were operating an object that might well save or not save the lives of hundreds. Yet in the midst of this, the tragedy seem to strike them both in a way no other event on Titanic could have done. It seperated them from each other

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering did you all get this information about Phillips and Bride being close from a certain website (no names mentioned) you see the thing is i've been researching Jack Phillips for a long time (Been researching for a book about him for four years) and i have three seperate sources that say he never met Bride until they arrived in Belfast in March 1912. I have a detailed breakdown of Jack's career and there's simply no room in between his and Harold's careers for them to strike up this friendship. i know that there is a certain site online that features, well frankly an absolute load of rubbish about both of them as well as Harold Cottam, someone with authority told me that the person who wrote it was writing a novel and it seems fact and fiction have got amazingly confused.........

 

[Brandon Whited]

Hi Jemma,

Sadly, I am a victim of the above-mentioned website. I used it as a source on an article I did about Jack Phillips a few months back. It's all fiction; Bride himself said he did not meet Jack until Belfast. Proof enough for me. That site was created by another so-called reincarnated soul; this one claiming to have been Bride's wife.

Minna:

Handsome eh? Geez I wish more girls thought along your lines!

Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Inger Sheil]

G'day Jemma -

I'm in agreement with Brandon here, and I'd say that your sources re Phillips and Bride not having met before are correct. The compiler of the website you refer to believes that she was the wife of Harold Bride in a past life, and has demonstrated remarkably obduracy when presented with facts that contradict her 'memories' of what her husband apparently told her in the past.

One reason I'm looking forward to the publication of your work is that I believe it is well past time that there was more fact circulating about the Titanic's wireless operators and rather less romantic fiction. I believe the fantasies built up around Bride and Phillips trivialises these historic figures, doing both them and Titanic researchers a great disservice. Hopefully your work will present us with a fuller, more accurate idea of who these men were - your adherence to fact rather than fantasy passed off as fact is refreshing and very welcome.

All the best,

Inger

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Thanks, Inger

I'm in agreement with you both, It shocks me to think that so many people have gone in search of finding some information and picked up on it as i believe it was a much recognised site, even had awards on it that doesn't leave people with any doubts about what they are reading. I also heard she had a secret diary of Cyril Evans and at one point she was informing everybody of how bitter he was to the three heros because they were such good friends and I think thats unfair to the man. Like you said Harold Bride said himself he had not met Jack before Belfast and Harold Cottam's nephew dismissed much of the information on him that is posted there too. She has every right in the world to create a piece of fiction about whoever she likes but others need to be informed clearly that's that what it is.

 

[Brandon Whited]

The site definitely didn't pass Jack Phillips off as being a very nice fellow, either. I recall something about him drinking, and I think there might have even been mention of prostitutes. I have never heard about him being wild like that; was he?

The awards were basically what threw me off. It just seemed so authentic; I believe there was even one from the History Channel! It must have been cut-and-pasted, or H.C. doesn't research the sites themselves before giving the awards. Beats me how it got there!


Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Jemma Hyder]

The History channel show a picture of Lowe in their big titanic documentary when they re talking about Jack so it wouldn't surprise me.

Sources are scarce for character references. I don't claim him to be an absolute saint but what appears on the site has no basis for claiming the things it does about his character. indeed if everything about the relationship between the three is rubbish (which it definetely is) then the accompanying details bout Jack's fast living and heavy drinking don't tally with an apparently hard working young man progressing very nicely in his career.

Jack was somewhat rebellious certainly until he began working where the reports of it die down. He does appeared to have been intelligent enough to finish top of his class at the Marconi school which he must have worked extrememly hard to achieve, not something that agrees at all with the above mentioned web site. he also appears to have been quite sporty and active which dosen't tally with all night binges countless women etc etc.

Cheers,

Jemma

 

[Jemma Hyder]

I had considered setting the record straight about all three operators so to speak, on another website, but not being too clued up on such things (geocities is my limit) I would have no clue as to how to get it noticed.

 

[Tracy Smith]

To get it noticed, you can post a notice here and on all Titanic sites you can find. Second, you can submit your completed website to the major search engines, and third, you can join a webring of related websites.

I used to have a site of Star Trek stories I'd written (until Homestead starting charging for them) and I did all three of these steps and it worked out fairly well.

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Thanks Tracey,

saw the battering you took yesterday somewhere on here about Lord, thought it was a bit harsh.

Cheers Jemma

 

[Tracy Smith]

Thank you for your kind words, Jemma. I appreciate your concern.