Harold Lowe
Harold Lowe | |
---|---|
Born | Harold Godfrey Lowe 21 November 1882 Eglwys Rhos, Caernarfonshire, Wales |
Died | 12 May 1944 Deganwy, Caernarfonshire, Wales | (aged 61)
Occupation(s) | Merchant seaman, Naval officer, Civil Defence Service |
Spouse |
Ellen Marion Whitehouse
(m. 1913) |
Children | 2 |
Commander Harold Godfrey Lowe, RD (21 November 1882 – 12 May 1944) was a Welsh naval officer. He was also the fifth officer of the RMS Titanic, and was amongst the four of the ship's officers to survive the disaster.
Biography
Early years
Harold Lowe was born in
Aboard the Titanic
Like the ship's other junior officers, Lowe reported to White Star's Liverpool offices at nine o'clock in the morning on 26 March 1912, and travelled to board Titanic at Belfast the following day. On sailing day (10 April), Lowe assisted (among other things) in the lowering of two of the starboard lifeboats to satisfy the Board of Trade that Titanic met safety regulations. When Titanic departed Southampton at noon, Lowe was on the bridge, relaying messages to various parts of the ship by telephone. He claimed he felt like an outsider while aboard the Titanic as he had never worked with the other officers before and they had all travelled over the Atlantic before while he had not.
The sinking
On 14 April 1912, the night of the sinking, Lowe had been relieved at 8.00 PM by
After reaching the water, Lowe ordered his lifeboat to be rowed about 150 yd (140 m) away from Titanic. When the ship foundered at around 2.20 AM, Lowe had begun to gather several lifeboats together. He wished to return to pick up survivors but had fears of being swamped by hordes of people due to the lack of experienced crewmen in the boats. He redistributed the survivors in the group of lifeboats he had gathered into a flotilla, in order to ready one lifeboat for a search for additional survivors. The lifeboat he took back to the site of the sinking had a hand-picked team of crewmen to assist in the rescue operation. They waited until the swimmers had thinned out before returning so that they would not be swamped and capsized by their numbers. It was only well-into the operation that they realised this had been unnecessary; the water being simply too cold for anyone to survive any great amount of time, let alone have the energy to swamp a lifeboat. In total there were four men taken out of the water, one of whom died later that night. Many more voices could be heard in the darkness, but locating them proved to be a largely fruitless task, despite the best efforts of the crew. Lowe's is noted as being one of only two lifeboats to return for survivors. Lowe had his crew of men raise the mast (he was the only officer to make use of the mast and sail in each lifeboat); using a breeze that had sprung up, he continued on to rescue the passengers on the sinking Collapsible A.[3] Lowe and his group of lifeboats were picked up the next morning by the RMS Carpathia. An image taken by a passenger on the Carpathia clearly shows Lowe at the tiller of lifeboat 14 as they approach rescue.[4] He remained aboard his lifeboat long enough to ship the mast and make certain everything was properly stowed.
Inquiries
The Titanic survivors arrived at Pier 54 in
Later life
Upon his return to his home town of Barmouth 1,300 people attended a reception held in his honor at the Picture Pavilion. He was presented with a commemorative gold watch, with the inscription "Presented to Harold Godfrey Lowe, 5th officer R.M.S. Titanic by his friends in Barmouth and elsewhere in recognition and appreciation of his gallant services at the foundering of the Titanic 15th April 1912."
In September 1913, Harold married Ellen Marion Whitehouse, and they had two children, Florence Josephine who was born in 1914 and died in 1999 and Harold William who was born while Harold was serving in World War I. He served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War and saw service in Vladivostok during the Russian Revolution and Civil War,[7] attaining the rank of Lieutenant, RNR. After the war he returned to serve with International Mercantile Marine ships and the White Star Line, retiring in 1931 to Deganwy with his family.[7]
During
Death
Lowe died of hypertension on 12 May 1944 at the age of 61. His body was buried at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos churchyard in Rhos-on-Sea in North Wales.
Legacy
In 1979's
Lowe is the subject of a biography by author Inger Sheil titled Titanic Valour: The Life of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe. In this biography, the author gathers multiple glowing references from both passengers and crew alike, many of whom credit him with having saved their lives. The author notes not just the volume of feeling shown towards Lowe by the people he helped, but also 'a surprising depth'. His strong leadership, organisational skills and encouragement was credited by numerous passengers as having been decisive in their survival; his actions on the night being described as 'exemplary'. Lowe later received multiple gifts and offers of money (which he always turned down) from grateful passengers, and would respond to such praise with the polite, but humble assertion that it was unnecessary as he had simply been doing his job. Survivor Renee Harris, writing in 1932, gave an interview in which she asserted that through all the years, Lowe had stood out in her memory as one of the finest men she had ever been privileged to meet.[7]
A 2018 opinion piece in the
In 2004, a menu of the first meal ever served aboard Titanic, which Lowe had sent to his fiancée when the ship was docked in Ireland, sold for £51,000, breaking the record for auctioned Titanic memorabilia at that time.[11]
A slate plaque in Lowe's memory was hung on the centennial anniversary of Titanic's sinking in Barmouth, Gwynedd, Wales. Memorializing Lowe's service, the plaque is inscribed in both Welsh and English, with pictures of Lowe and Titanic. It reads: "In Commemoration of local hero 5th Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe who left Barmouth aged 14 to go to sea. He played a heroic role in the rescue of survivors during the sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912." The plaque was unveiled by his grandson, Captain John Lowe and Maddy Matthews.[12]
A small blue plaque, unveiled on 7 April 2012, marks Lowe's final home at 1, Marine Crescent in Deganwy, Conwy, where he lived until his death in 1944.[13][14]
References
- ^ "TIP | United States Senate Inquiry | Day 5 | Testimony of Harold G. Lowe, cont". www.titanicinquiry.org. Retrieved 20 August 2021. Senator SMITH. You put it in your pocket after you fired those three shots? Mr. LOWE. Yes; I put in my pocket and put the safety catch on, because it is a Browning automatic. There were, I suppose, four more remaining. Senator SMITH. What we call a seven-shooter? Mr. LOWE. I do not know what you call it. Senator SMITH. Well, what do you call it? Mr. LOWE. It is an automatic. I think it carries eight.
- ISBN 978-0-85059-868-1.
- ISBN 0-03-027615-2.
- ^ "Photo taken by Carpathia passenger of Lowe at tiller of lifeboat 14". Archived from the original (JPG) on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
- ^ Lord, Walter (1955). A Night to Remember. Henry Holt & Company.
- ^ Lightoller, Charles, Herbert (1935). Titanic and Other Ships. London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson. pp. (Chapter 35 "THE RESCUE").
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ ISBN 9780752477701.
- ^ The Huffington Post
- ^ Collyer, Charlotte Caroline (1912). "How I was saved from the Titanic: A Titanic survivor's story". Click America. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-7524-6996-6.
- ^ "Titanic hero's menu smashes record". BBC. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 11 June 2006.. The BBC 2004 account may be defective. It says "only two of the ship's officers" survived the Titanic disaster: Wikipedia names and portrays the four officers who in fact survived.
- ^ "Welsh hero of Titanic remembered 100 years on". ITV. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
- ^ "Titanic hero Harold Lowe: Blue plaque unveiled at Deganwy home". BBC News North West Wales. 10 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
- ^ "Newsletter 8".
Bibliography
- Sheil, Inger (2012), Titanic Valour: The Life of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, ISBN 978-0752469966
External links
- Titanic-Titanic entry
- BBC Wales North West Public Life profile(Wayback Machine)
- Encyclopedia Titanica entry
- Full American and British Inquiry Transcripts (partly retrieved from Wayback, last updated 2006, some corresponding links on page will not activate)
- Welsh Mariners Index
- 5th officer Harold Lowe with two of his children