How two men saved over 700 lives on Titanic! (The tale of Jack Philips and Harold Bride Complete!!) 

Yesterday was the 85th anniversary since Hindenburg caught fire and crashed. Today is the 107th anniversary since RMS Lusitania was lost. RIP to all those who died in this tragedy.

There was a proclaimation about Titanic's survivors made by the public after she sank-"Those who were saved were saved by one man, Mr. Marconi.". However the two men on the spot, Phillips and Bride were instrumental in effectively using Marconi's creation. They especially used great personal initiative by repairing the shorted coil in the wireless the night before against company policy. If this repair wasn't made, the range of the radio on battery power alone would cut the range to 50 miles instead of the 4-500 miles maximum. With the limited 50 mile range they might not have even reached the Carpathia in time.

I wonder if Jack was in a state of shock. The lack of sleep could have exasperated his symptoms. I've seen people in shock before and it's extremely similar to what you're describing. People do funny things when their in dire situations. Some people freeze, some people work through it.

He actually never sent that “quit jamming” part to the Californian. What he said was actually banter jargon between Marconi operators of the time. The Californian operator actually testified to this at the British inquiry. Bride never sent an angry message. It wasn’t angry. It was joking.

I am crying the two boys are so young and working so hard .they are just about my grandsons age .how horrible for Jack Phillips family ,his mother my heart goes to her .they are real heroes.

These guys helped save so many lives at the risk of their own

You should do a video on how Harold Cottam’s work saved those lives too! He was just in the process of getting ready for bed when he picked up the Titanic’s distress call and his decision to awaken Captain Arthur Henry Rostron and inform him that the Titanic was in trouble is what got the Carpathia into action to arrive at the Titanic’s sinking location hours before any other ship and rescue the survivors. He was also good friends with Harold Bride and Jack Phillips and I can’t imagine how Cottam and Bride must’ve felt to have been seeing each other again after the tragedy and about how their work is what got the Carpathia into action to save all of those lives. It was also great of Bride to have been working together with Cottam to transmit official messages about the Titanic’s sinking during their journey to New York City, even though he had badly injured his feet in the disaster.

Phillips was too young to die 😢 (25 years old)

I think Phillips had a tremendous amount of guilt which contributed to his breakdown even when the wireless was clearly not working anymore

I stumbled across your channel by accident and I'm glad because your a true historian Sam. I'm from Dublin Ireland 🇮🇪. I've always been fascinated by the Titanic. I decided to take a trip down to Cobh, Co Cork Ireland last month. This was the last stop for the Titanic, queen's Town as it was named at the time. I urge you come here and sample the atmosphere, there is a neat Titanic exhibition and many land marks. Keep up the great work. Thanks

As a software engineer it is quite wild to imagine what life must have been like back then for wireless operators. After all given today's general knowledge even their marconi wireless, primitive as it was, could have been used for so much more than just transmitting morse code messages. Kinda insane to think about how far this technology had already advanced just 61 years after the sinking when the first wireless network was established.

Another important tidbit about the wireless system, was that there were no 'channels' or frequencies. Everyone had to basically share a 'party line', transmitting and receiving on the same 'channel'. So you can imagine all these ships all trying to transmit ice warnings, ship to ship and ship to shore communications, personal messages from passengers, etc all over a single shared frequency. It must have been absolutely insane.

11:24 those 2 images, I just cannot get over how mighty and majestic this ship was. It's what hooked me all those years ago and it's what keeps me coming back. It might be a perfect visual specimen of a seafaring vessel.

Please make a hero’s video on Lighttoller! He was a fascinating guy!! 2nd officer on the titanic, captain of a patrol/attack boat in WW1, and took part in the civilian evacuation of Dunkirk in WW2!! Fascinating!!!

In fairness, Jack Philips' response to Californian may have just been how Marconi operators talked to each other. Oceanliner Designs made a video about this: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CvLWcP_bD4w.html

Congrats for 70k subs! You absolutely deserve this, you doing amazing job! Also, I'd love a video about Murdoch, he's my favourite Titanic officer

Amazing video man! Congratulations on 70k+ subs! 🎉

If they hadn't bronken the rules and had not fixed the Marconi wireless the day the ship sank, there's a good chance that a lot more if not all the passengers and crew would have died. A reminder of even for back then sea travel could be very dangerous.

Thank you so much for teaching us this amazing stuff about the Titanic and other ships! You're the best

Or if they had followed the Marconi instructions and not fixed the radio, captain smith would not have got the ice multiple warnings on April 14 which lead him to take a more westerly course hitting the ice berg. Original path titanic was taking was safe. It was too many ice warnings that put her on a deadly collision course. Radio going offline on April 13 might be a godsend to stop the Titanic from hitting the iceberg.

God bless them both - a couple of true heroes.

Big fan . Sub when you had under 5k . Love this page. I got to meet Dr. Robert Ballard back in 1987 . Few years after find the titanic. And there's a titanic historical museum near me. With jj actors wife's life vest . And other artifacts that were not recovered from the wreck

I didn’t believe he would even get to 100k subs. He probably will. He deserves WAY more subs.

Can you do a video for the people that kept the lights on the titanic because if it wasn’t for them people would’ve not been able to get to the life boats and been a lot more deaths

Absolutely astounding job. I love your explanations, it really expands a lot of important details. Such as the extremely loud steam venting, which would have been a huge impediment to communication on the deck.

all these details can make a new titanic movie. your a great story teller. this is the best youtube video i seen from along time.

That feeling when Sam does a regular upload, but not a premiere...

I just subscribed to you this morning. I've been enjoying listening to your podcasts all the time lately, especially while I'm at the gym like I am right now, listening to your amazing podcasts, Keep up the good work

What you said at 5:24 was not exactly correct: "The Marconi wireless system also had another use, that wasn't for official purposes. This use was to be used by the Titanic's passengers." Actually that was the MAIN use of the wireless system. Philips and Bride were employees of the Marconi company, they were not employees of the White Star Line company. In the ship's list they were second class passengers. Their MAIN duty was to receive and send the so called "Marconigrams" between the passengers, that's what they were paid to do. The communication between the ships was additional job for them, sometimes ANNOYING additional part of the job. The priority were the messages of the passengers, so any message from and for a ship had to be labelled, to get prioritized. The amazing thing in the story of the Titanic is that there's no main villain, just few people (some of them are considered heroes) made some very small mistakes. They didn't even know that they were doing mistakes, they were doing something pretty usual for them. Something that they've done many times before, without any consequences. But this particular time these small mistakes added up with some misfortune, and that's how the impossible happened: the most advanced, safe, beautiful (and so on) ship in the world sank in her maiden voyage. It's incredible that the main characters in the story were heroes and villains at the same time. They made small mistakes that lead to the collision, and after that they did the best they could do to save as many lives as possible.

Centering on an occasional hero, Is a GOOD idea🤔, Sam!!! There's nothing wrong, with creating a certain topic (as long as it's interesting), and keeping it going with periodical, information!!!

The man who tried to steal the life jacket probably saved Harold Brides life without even knowing it.

You should do a video on all the ships that were near the Titanic the night of the sinking

Sam, if you want an example of how much of a difference the distance radio transmissions can be heard during the nighttime vs distance heard during the daytime, listen to AM broadcast radio. I live in NC and during the day I can only receive stations in my immediate area. At night, however I can receive AM broadcast stations that are in Atlanta, Pittsburg, and even Albany NY (my hometown). I suspect that the Marconi wireless system was using frequencies in the same range of the frequencies AM broadcast radio uses today

Great job sam 👍

Please can u do a video on titanic second officer Lightoller?

Thank you Sam, another great educational video.

Congrats on 70K.

The tragedy happened, of course, because the Titanic did not slow down despite the known presence of icebergs ahead. As I understand it, the general thinking by Smith was that they would spot a berg in time to avoid it; which they almost did. However, the lack of moonlight, and of surf against the berg (s) due to the unusually calm ocean, worked against this; but Smith should have taken these factors into consideration, and ordered half-speed until dawn. The question is, would he have slowed down had he received the Californian's final warning? Likey not, but we'll never know.

I would love for this series to keep going !!

Harold Bride Lived With His Uncle, Cousins and Harold Cottom. Bride Would Have Nightmares On and Off For the Rest of his Life sometimes staying up all night Saying “I’m So Sorry Phillips” Bride would also mistake family members as Phillips but Bride would eventually get over the Titanic.

You have a great, interesting, educational channel. Keep up the good work.

Jack Phillips and Harold Bride left the Marconi Wireless Room at 2:07 am.

Worsham! Congrats on the subs. That's so awesome and so are your videos. If Jack and Harold hadn't fixed the radio, there would have been No survivors that night. They are heroes. Like the idea of the video you said. Be neat.

This was actually very very informative well done video

This video is one of my favourites,because I watched The Last Signals way to many times

I think doing heros in history is a great idea!

Another great vid sam

Harold Bride’s misfortune continued even though he survived. The men on Collapsible Boat B spent hours balancing themselves in ankle-deep water before they were picked up by another lifeboat. Bride suffered severe frostbite to his feet. He had to be lifted up onto and carried off of The Carpathia.

I love the idea

@19 minutes, you're right. I served in three steam powered ships and those things you say are true. I watched a boiler nearly explode a couple of times. Venting residual steam is a thing that sometimes happens. We say that if it's black smoke, two minutes to correct it or pull fires. White steam is even worse . . . pull fires in one minute.

Sam just started watching. You're a star 🌟

It’s the 107th anniversary of the Lusitania

could you do what if captain didn't shut down the engines/propellers?

I what to thank you I learned a lot from you I always been a titanic fan I been doing a project on it since hi school you really help in lock down you fantastic

Very interesting vids, thanks for your insight and info! If you're ever looking for vid ideas on less known wrecks, the Lakes Freighter S.S. Carl D. Bradley would be a cool one to see.

Yes, keep this series going! Love it

I love you’re content so much :) thanks for the amazing videos

Congrats on 70,000+

Congrats on 70K subs!

Hello Sam you are one of my favorites RU-vidrs love your videos whatever I want to know something about a ship that sank I turn to you you have videos almost about every ship But I have a question what if the titanic Never sink how would that impact the future hey what would’ve been completely different what can you sync would’ve happened if the titanic never Sink at all how would things completely change I wander

Bride and Phillips were true ham radio operators; had they not done all that work fixing the radio, who knows how many more lives would’ve been lost that night? I’m not too good at it myself, despite being an amateur radio operator, but my dad (also a ham) is very good at troubleshooting and fixing his radios. Hell, most hams I know are pretty good at doing that too.

Love this great job

14:56 do we know anything about the radio operator on the Californian? It couldn't have been easy coping with that for the rest of your life. Presmuably EVERYONE on Titanic would have survived had he not switched it off?

Another thing I've always wondered but this is probably silly: couldn't a boat have attempted to row to the nearby ship and sound the alarm or was this not possible? I assume it was not.

GREAT .thank,s

I felt really bad for Harold Bride, given everything he went through the night of the sinking.

Cant remember name of RU-vid channel, but its a great channel like yours. The gist of what he said was that it was common practice to say things like the "keep out keep out, shut up" and this talking shit was a friendly banter that all marconi operators did.. his information came from some book by a Commodore of White Star Line... You always so informed, was curious if you ever heard this information? Seems from this video you have not... I hope its true... it makes that incident seem less bad on Phillips

19:05 Woow! I did Not know Modern Ships run on "GAS" 🤣🤣 I knoow I knoow, You meant Gasoline hahaha 👍 But its still funny

Sweet. Keep it up!!!

thx for your work

Yay well done Sam! ❤️

Another great video

There were several things that led to the fatal outcome…Officers on board told passengers that the ship was fine when in fact it was sinking…People were fearful to get onto the life boats as there was a significant danger in lowering them…people believed that rescue ships would arrive before the ship sank as proven by previous experiences…the port side officer would only let women and children onto the ship while male passengers were led to believe they were more likely to survive if they went to the port side, and pure hubris in thinking that the ship was unsinkable…

congrats man!

Great video

Here's a what if, what if they had followed protocol and went to the emergency backup. Hear me out, they would not have been too tired from staying up all night trying to fix the radio. That Sunday depending on where they were they would have had time to deliver ice warnings to the bridge since they would not be working cape race. When the Californian radio'd that they had stopped for the night due to ice they would not have dismissed their operator and maybe have even kept him online for awhile. Also they would have had time to relay this message to the bridge.

great story telling! gj

Can you make Sinking of Carpathia

Congrats on 70k subs. My family and I are going to the Titanic museum in Orlando later this month. Do u have any advice or interesting things to look for?

I agree to disagree, I think they were contributing factors, both towards the disaster, and to saving lives. What I mean by that is that during the inquiries, Marconi said the compensation for operators started at $4 to $10 to $12 US per week with board and lodging. And then they were paid 12s. 6d for ten word messages, and 9d for each additional word. And Phillips was working on 200+ back-logged messages, that's 12s, 6d times 200 = Enough of a monetary reason not just for Phillips & Bride to fix the Primary radio, but enough of a monetary reason for Phillips to politely tell Evans to take a hike. Which he did, and even added "I'm working". As for the whole "MSG" affair, the argument pretty much goes by standard that a message not affixed "MSG" = Invalid. Alright, but a standard applies to all or none. Here's what Phillips told Cottam on Carpathia: 'Come at once it's CQD, OM. Position 41'46N, 50'14W'. 'Shall I tell my Captain ? Do you require assistance?' " That looks like Phillips didn't affix "MSG" or even SOS (established years before) for that matter, if so, it's not a distress call. Because if it was, Cottam would have instantly replied "I've got ya OM". By the standard accorded Phillips, Cottam was well within his rights to tell Phillips to stuff it, but he didn't. It had nothing to do with whether or not Evans's warning was affixed "MSG". And that's not the only ice message that didn't make it to the bridge, and yet none of those who sent those warnings (which basically should have told Phillips they were steaming into an ice field) were blasted during the inquiries, except Evans. The reason Bride wanted to relieve Phillips earlier on, was for monetary reasons. The reason Phillips frantically stayed on and literally spammed the net was due to guilt, but that's not to say he didn't perform admirably given the circumstances. As such, IMO (subject to change of course) they weren't heroes as much as contributing factors (of which there were a great many), both to the sinking, and to saving lives.

Would love to see a video about White White Star's SS Naonic and what you believe the chances are of it being found one day!

Hey sam, Just wondering if you could do a history episode on the battle of midway, love your history covers, and thanks for the content you produce for us.

Sam do you think if all of Titanics pumps were moved into the 5th compartment she would of been able to stay afloat ?

I believe Jack Phillips was feeling a sense of guilt for not passing those last iceberg warnings to the bridge. I put myself in his shoes and I know that’s how I would have feeling. Must have been a sense of dread and major guilt. I think he was trying incredibly hard to make up for this mistake by trying with everything he had to get as much distress calls out that he could. This was the only thing he had control of at this point. Yes he was probably in a trance type state as well but again I think it was driven from remorse. Quite sad but this one action of had he DID deliver those warnings to the captain, surely this could have changed the course of history as we know it.

it's a wonderful tribute to RMS Carpathia could you do a documentary on Chief Officer Wilde?

So a guy named "Jack" died while his friend survived by floating on top of debris (an overtuned life boat in this case). I feel like I've seen this somewhere.

Your two stories on the altercation totally contradict each other!

Fun fact: the cover was from I survived the sinking of titanic.. Loved the book.

Dear Sam, I have a what if question. What if - collapsible B fell from officers quarters to boat deck NOT upside down

Do I have a dejavu or is this the second upload of that same video here? 🤔

Sun up, freq up! Sun down, freq down! And HF range and lower extends a LOT at night.

10:33 you mean 13th right?

Imagine if they had to relay steamy messages to lovers back home. 'thinking of you. Stop. I'm not wearing a corset. Stop.

Is your thumbnail the book cover from “I Survived The Sinking Of The Titanic 1912”?

I was the first The first to like your New video

Looks like the mast on the model behind you is in tention and looks like its either gonna snap or deform

If I'm not mistaken, it went out around 4:20

Have you made a video about tge mystery if Harold and Jack killed a stoker who try to steel their life vest just like in the Night To Remember?

I’d love to see the rest of the stories of the Lusitania. As well as the story of the Andrea Doria

❤titanic