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John George Phillips (wireless officer)
Encyclopedia
John George "Jack" Phillips (11 April 1887 – 15 April 1912) was a British wireless telegraphist who died while on the Titanic after it hit an iceberg; he was serving as senior wireless
operator on board the maiden voyage of the . As the Titanic was sinking, Phillips worked tirelessly to send wireless messages to other ships to enlist their assistance with the rescue of the Titanics passengers and crew. While Phillips has borne criticism for having told the radio operator of the Californian, "Shut up! I am busy, I am working Cape Race!" when interrupted on-air by his counterpart telling him that his ship was surrounded by ice, similar warning messages earlier that day had been delivered to the captain and a lookout had been posted.
, England
to George Alfred Phillips and Anne Sanders. Phillips finished private school in Godalming
in 1902 and began working at the Godalming post office
where he learned telegraphy
. He started training to work in wireless
for the Marconi Company
in March 1906 in Seaforth
and graduated five months later in August.
Phillips' first assignment was on the White Star Line
ship Teutonic and he later worked on board the Campania, the Corsican, the Victorian, the Pretorian, the and the . In May 1908, he was assigned to the Marconi station outside Clifden
, Ireland
, where he worked until 1911, when he was assigned to the and later, in early 1912, to the Oceanic
.
, Ireland, to be the senior wireless operator on board the Titanic for her maiden voyage. He was joined by junior wireless operator Harold Bride
. Stories have appeared that Phillips knew Bride before the Titanic, but Bride insisted they had never met before Belfast. The Titanic sailed for New York City
from Southampton
, England, on 10 April 1912 and during the voyage Phillips and Bride sent out passengers' personal messages and received iceberg
warnings and other navigational information from other ships. Phillips celebrated his 25th birthday the day after the voyage began.
On the evening of 14 April, in the wireless room on the boat deck
, Phillips was sending messages to Cape Race
, Newfoundland
, working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages that had accumulated when the wireless had broken down the day before. Bride was asleep in the adjoining cabin, intending to relieve Phillips at midnight, two hours early. Shortly after 9:30 pm, Phillips received an ice warning from the steamship Mesaba reporting a large number of icebergs and an ice field directly in the path of Titanic. Phillips acknowledged the Mesabas warning and continued to transmit messages to Cape Race. The Mesabas wireless operator waited for Phillips to report that he had given the report to the bridge
, but Phillips continued working Cape Race. The message was one of the most important warnings Titanic received, but it was never delivered to the bridge.
Second Officer (Second Mate) Charles Lightoller
reports in Chapter 31 of his autobiography:
After 11:00 pm, Phillips was again interrupted by another ship, this time the . The Californians only wireless operator, Cyril Evans, was reporting that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. The Californian was very close and the signal was strong and loud in Phillips' ears. Phillips quickly sent back, "Shut up, shut up, I am busy working Cape Race!" and continued communicating with Cape Race while Evans listened a while longer before going to bed for the night. This communication had important consequences. Firstly, Evans gave a warning of ice, which if heeded could have prevented Titanics sinking. Secondly, Californian was the closest ship to Titanic. As the radio had been switched off by Evans, Phillips had no way of communicating with Californian should Titanic require immediate assistance, which it very soon did.
Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm that night and began sinking. Bride had woken up and began getting ready to relieve Phillips when Captain Edward Smith came into the wireless room and told Phillips to prepare to send out a distress signal
. Shortly after midnight, Captain Smith came in again and told them to send out the call for assistance and gave them Titanics estimated position. Phillips began sending out the distress signal, code CQD
, while Bride took messages to Captain Smith about which ships were coming to Titanics assistance. At one point, Bride jokingly reminded Phillips that the new call was SOS
and said "Send S.O.S., it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it." A myth developed after the disaster that this was the first time SOS was used, but it had been used on other ships previously.
After taking a quick break, Phillips returned to the wireless room, reporting to Bride that the forward
part of the ship was flooded and that they should put on more clothes and lifebelts
. Bride began to get ready while Phillips went back to work on the wireless machine. The wireless power was almost completely out shortly after 2:00 am when Captain Smith arrived and told the men that they had done their duty and that they were relieved. Bride later remembered being moved by the way Phillips continued working. While their backs were turned, a crew member (either a stoker or trimmer) sneaked in and attempted to steal Phillips' lifebelt. Bride saw and grabbed the man as Phillips stood up and knocked the crew member out. The water was beginning to flood the wireless room as they both ran out of the wireless room, leaving the unconscious crewman where he fell. The men then split up, Bride heading forward and Phillips heading aft
.
Phillips managed to make it to the overturned lifeboat
B, which was in the charge of Second Officer Charles Lightoller
, along with Harold Bride. In Lightoller's autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships, he writes,
Harold Bride reporting seeing Phillips' body as he boarded the Carpathia.
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy is a historical term used today to apply to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices, particularly those used during the first three decades of radio before the term radio came into use....
operator on board the maiden voyage of the . As the Titanic was sinking, Phillips worked tirelessly to send wireless messages to other ships to enlist their assistance with the rescue of the Titanics passengers and crew. While Phillips has borne criticism for having told the radio operator of the Californian, "Shut up! I am busy, I am working Cape Race!" when interrupted on-air by his counterpart telling him that his ship was surrounded by ice, similar warning messages earlier that day had been delivered to the captain and a lookout had been posted.
Biography
John George "Jack" Phillips was born in Farncombe, SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to George Alfred Phillips and Anne Sanders. Phillips finished private school in Godalming
Godalming
Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
in 1902 and began working at the Godalming post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
where he learned telegraphy
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
. He started training to work in wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
for the Marconi Company
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
in March 1906 in Seaforth
Seaforth, Merseyside
Seaforth is a district within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It is located to the north of Liverpool, between Bootle and Waterloo.-History:...
and graduated five months later in August.
Phillips' first assignment was on the White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
ship Teutonic and he later worked on board the Campania, the Corsican, the Victorian, the Pretorian, the and the . In May 1908, he was assigned to the Marconi station outside Clifden
Clifden
Clifden is a town on the coast of County Galway, Ireland and being Connemara's largest town, it is often referred to as "the Capital of Connemara". It is located on the Owenglen River where it flows into Clifden Bay...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, where he worked until 1911, when he was assigned to the and later, in early 1912, to the Oceanic
RMS Oceanic (1899)
RMS Oceanic was a transatlantic ocean liner, built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and, until 1901, was the largest ship in the world...
.
RMS Titanic
In March 1912, Phillips was sent to BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Ireland, to be the senior wireless operator on board the Titanic for her maiden voyage. He was joined by junior wireless operator Harold Bride
Harold Sydney Bride
Harold Sydney Bride became the junior wireless officer on board the maiden voyage of the ocean liner RMS Titanic. The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm 14 April 1912 and sank two hours and forty minutes later. Working with Jack Phillips, Bride helped inform Titanics Captain Smith about the...
. Stories have appeared that Phillips knew Bride before the Titanic, but Bride insisted they had never met before Belfast. The Titanic sailed for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, England, on 10 April 1912 and during the voyage Phillips and Bride sent out passengers' personal messages and received iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
warnings and other navigational information from other ships. Phillips celebrated his 25th birthday the day after the voyage began.
On the evening of 14 April, in the wireless room on the boat deck
Deck (ship)
A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...
, Phillips was sending messages to Cape Race
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", or "bare"...
, Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages that had accumulated when the wireless had broken down the day before. Bride was asleep in the adjoining cabin, intending to relieve Phillips at midnight, two hours early. Shortly after 9:30 pm, Phillips received an ice warning from the steamship Mesaba reporting a large number of icebergs and an ice field directly in the path of Titanic. Phillips acknowledged the Mesabas warning and continued to transmit messages to Cape Race. The Mesabas wireless operator waited for Phillips to report that he had given the report to the bridge
Bridge (ship)
The bridge of a ship is the room or platform from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...
, but Phillips continued working Cape Race. The message was one of the most important warnings Titanic received, but it was never delivered to the bridge.
Second Officer (Second Mate) Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
reports in Chapter 31 of his autobiography:
Later, when standing with others on the upturned boat, Phillips explained when I said that I did not recollect any Mesaba report: "I just put the message under a paper weight at my elbow, just until I squared up what I was doing before sending it to the Bridge." That delay proved fatal and was the main contributory cause to the loss of that magnificent ship and hundreds of lives. Had I as Officer of the Watch, or the Captain, become aware of the peril lying so close ahead and not instantly slowed down or stopped, we should have been guilty of culpable and criminal negligence.
After 11:00 pm, Phillips was again interrupted by another ship, this time the . The Californians only wireless operator, Cyril Evans, was reporting that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. The Californian was very close and the signal was strong and loud in Phillips' ears. Phillips quickly sent back, "Shut up, shut up, I am busy working Cape Race!" and continued communicating with Cape Race while Evans listened a while longer before going to bed for the night. This communication had important consequences. Firstly, Evans gave a warning of ice, which if heeded could have prevented Titanics sinking. Secondly, Californian was the closest ship to Titanic. As the radio had been switched off by Evans, Phillips had no way of communicating with Californian should Titanic require immediate assistance, which it very soon did.
Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm that night and began sinking. Bride had woken up and began getting ready to relieve Phillips when Captain Edward Smith came into the wireless room and told Phillips to prepare to send out a distress signal
Distress signal
A distress signal is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals take the form of or are commonly made by using radio signals, displaying a visually detected item or illumination, or making an audible sound, from a distance....
. Shortly after midnight, Captain Smith came in again and told them to send out the call for assistance and gave them Titanics estimated position. Phillips began sending out the distress signal, code CQD
CQD
CQD, transmitted in Morse code as — · — · — — · — — · · is one of the first distress signals adopted for radio use...
, while Bride took messages to Captain Smith about which ships were coming to Titanics assistance. At one point, Bride jokingly reminded Phillips that the new call was SOS
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
and said "Send S.O.S., it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it." A myth developed after the disaster that this was the first time SOS was used, but it had been used on other ships previously.
After taking a quick break, Phillips returned to the wireless room, reporting to Bride that the forward
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
part of the ship was flooded and that they should put on more clothes and lifebelts
Personal flotation device
A personal flotation device is a device designed to assist a wearer, either conscious or unconscious, to keep afloat.Devices designed and approved by authorities for use by...
. Bride began to get ready while Phillips went back to work on the wireless machine. The wireless power was almost completely out shortly after 2:00 am when Captain Smith arrived and told the men that they had done their duty and that they were relieved. Bride later remembered being moved by the way Phillips continued working. While their backs were turned, a crew member (either a stoker or trimmer) sneaked in and attempted to steal Phillips' lifebelt. Bride saw and grabbed the man as Phillips stood up and knocked the crew member out. The water was beginning to flood the wireless room as they both ran out of the wireless room, leaving the unconscious crewman where he fell. The men then split up, Bride heading forward and Phillips heading aft
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...
.
Phillips managed to make it to the overturned lifeboat
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
B, which was in the charge of Second Officer Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
, along with Harold Bride. In Lightoller's autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships, he writes,
"Phillips, the senior wireless operator, standing near me, told me the different ships that had answered our call..."
"...As it turned out, the information from Phillips, and the calculation, were about right, though poor old Phillips did not live to benefit by it. He hung on till daylight came in and we sighted one of the lifeboats in the distance..."
"...I think it must have been the final and terrible anxiety that tipped the beam with Phillips, for he suddenly slipped down, sitting in the water, and though we held his head up, he never recovered. I insisted on taking him into the lifeboat with us, hoping there still might be life, but it was too late."
Harold Bride reporting seeing Phillips' body as he boarded the Carpathia.
External links
- John Phillips' Memorial on Titanic-Titanic.com
- The River Wey and Wey Navigations Community Site — a non-commercial site of over 200,000 words all about the River Wey including information and images about Jack Phillips and the memorial in his honour at Godalming near his Farncombe home
- The radio legacy of the R.M.S. Titanic