A 1907 postcard from Jack Phillips, the wireless operator on the TITANIC

postcard

A 1907 postcard from Jack Phillips, the Chief Telegraphist on the TITANIC, who died in the disaster. The card is address to Miss Elsie Phillips, his elder sister, and informs her that he is joining a ship the next day. He also says "managed to get one of C'n at last," which seems to refer to the photo of the CORSICAN on the front of the card, one of several ships he worked on. Jack Phillips originally trained to be a telegraphist with the Post Office but later underwent additional training on the newest wireless telegraphy technology. The Marconi Company had recently perfected its wireless signaling allowing ships to communicate at sea. In 1906, the year before this postcard, Phillips received his first posting as a wireless operator. Wireless operators aboard ship were employees not of the shipping line but of Marconi, and wireless operators handled not only official ship communications but also personal communications for passengers who paid for the privilege. The wireless was still a novelty, and aboard the TITANIC, Phillips handled an enormous volume of messages on the day of the sinking and also had equipment problems. Some of the messages he received throughout the day were warnings of ice ahead. At 10:55, the CALIFORNIAN just a few miles away contacted TITANIC with an ice warning and Phillips broke in saying "Keep out! Shut up! You're jamming my signal. I'm working Cape Race." CALIFORNIAN's nearby signal was drowning out the more distant signals he was receiving from Cape Race, Newfoundland. Tragically, the CALIFORNIAN's radio operator then turned off his equipment and went to bed, so that he never received TITANIC's distress calls later that night. The CALIFORNIAN's ice warning was not conveyed to the bridge, and neither was an earlier warning from the Mesaba. Despite those earlier failings, Phillips and his fellow wireless operator Frank Bride worked tirelessly after the ship struck the iceberg, contacting ships near and far to ask for help, until just before the sinking. It is thanks to them that the CARPATHIA changed course and sped towards the TITANIC in time to rescue the 700 people in lifeboats. Frank McBride survived and was interviewed in the New York Times upon arrival in New York. The role that the wireless telegraph had played in the disaster raised public awareness and led to new regulations about wireless use at sea.