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Show FALL 2013 UHQ pp 304-385_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 9/16/13 1:25 PM Page 335 LIBrAry OF CONGrESS hArOLD BrIDE INTErVIEW shoved by loving guards with holstered-up A Marconi wireless training revolvers, onto the Carpathia’s deck.”30 school. The inventor and the reporter soon located the wireless cabin on the deck of the large passenger ship. There they “found a boy sitting on a high stool—sending, sending, sending—His feet dangled below him in swaths of white bandages. On his wireless stand before him sat a plate of dinner all uneaten.” On the wall of the cabin hung a photograph of Marconi. Marconi gently told the young man that the ship was now in port and that he no longer needed to keep sending messages. As he said this, Marconi “lifted the boy’s hands from the keys.” Harold Bride, the only surviving wireless operator from the Titanic, did not seem to hear what Marconi was saying. “The people out there they want these messages to go—I must send them—the people waiting by the cabin.” Marconi explained that everyone had gone ashore and that the operator could now stop sending messages and have his serious injuries attended to.31 It took what seemed like a long time before recognition came into the young man’s eyes, but when it did, he even smiled a little. “You are Mr. Marconi,” Bride finally said, as he took his fingers from the telegraph key.32 When at last he had Bride’s attention, Marconi wanted to know why Bride had not received President Taft’s messages to the Carpathia regarding 30 Ibid. Ibid., 7–8; Russell, “Met Survivors of Titanic,” July 6, 1917; Russell, “Why Boy Kept Silent,” April 8, 1924. 32 Russell, unpublished manuscript on visit with Harold Bride, 7–8, Russell Papers. 31 335 |
