Jack Phillips Had A HalfBrother

[Inger Sheil]

Hallo Jemma -

There's a fairly specific point I'd like to discuss with you re Phillips - would prefer to do it via email (or better yet, over a few pints in Godalming!). Have been looking for someone to compare notes with on this particular matter for some time. The information I have might potentially be of use to you in your work on the senior wireless operator. I can be reached on [email protected]

Best wishes,

Inger

 

[Minna Tiihonen]

Jemma...
may I say you drive me nuts here?

I mean, you obviously know lots of things, LOTS of interesting things! You said that what you can tell depends on what we want to know. My answer: ANYTHING, anything at all! Just anything you could share with us!! Anything about his life, career, childhood, parents, family, relatives, friends... no matter how little or big details they would be. It's hard to ask anything specific but don't hesitate to send ANYTHING you could share!

Some day, when your book will be finished, I'll be the first one to order it

And pictures, I definitely wish to see them! My e-mail is [email protected]

Best wishes,
Minna

 

[anthony mccann]

Hi every1!!!! Been reading your discussions-interesting theory's! I read today that maybe it was wilde not murdoch that shot himself what do you guys think?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I think this is a really touchy issue where the evidence is so ambiguous that I wouldn't trust anything I heard on the matter. Especially after 90 years where the people involved can no longer speak up in their own defence. (shrug)

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Kyrila Scully]

There's another thread on the message board that deals with that discussion if you're really interested. I suggest you check it out.

All the best,
Kyrila

 

[Jemma Hyder]

K for all those people who wanted to see any pics of Jack related places I posted them on the web rather than sending piles of emails out with them in. (Me and attachments are not good friends lol) www.geocities.com/senioroperatorjackphillips

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

I realize it's been a while since this thread has been active, but here's the article on Jack Phillips' half-brother:


THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE, April 26, 1912, p. 4:

BROTHER IS HIT HARD BY NEWS OF DEATH

Clyde Wiley, Arriving on Spokane, Learns Worst.

Becomes Irrational When He Finds That His Half-Brother, Clyde Phillips, Operator on Titanic, Had Gone Down.

Clyde E. Wiley, age 21, wireless operator on the steamer Spokane, arriving on the Sound from Alaska yesterday, is a half-brother of Clyde Phillips, chief wireless operator on the steamer Titanic. He became so irrational when he heard here of the latter’s death it was necessary to lock him up in the city jail last evening. While in different saloons on Pacific avenue Wiley had threatened to go to the docks and commit suicide. When he appeared to be about to carry his threats into execution, he was arrested. This morning he was released and announced his intention of returning to Seattle.

Wiley had not yet heard sufficient news to enable him to know of his brother’s death until he arrived in Tacoma. While on the steamer, bound for the Sound, he had heard of the Titanic disaster, but no list of the survivors had been given him.

“Clyde broke me into the wireless game,” said Wiley to police officers last night. “We were both operators together. Some time ago I received a letter from him saying he believed the company would place him on the Titanic as chief operator. I heard at Skagway that the boat had been wrecked, but it was not until I reached Tacoma today that I found he was lost. It seemed at first as though I didn’t want to live, but I don’t want to commit suicide now.”

Doesn’t Sleep Much.

At the station last night Wiley was given a separate cell and a big pile of blankets so that he would be comfortable. He did not sleep much.

Clyde Phillips sent out the first “C. Q. D.” message for help from the steamer Titanic when she first hit the iceberg. Phillips was, according to the latest reports, still aboard the ship when she went down.


Best wishes,

Roy

 

[Inger Sheil]

Very interesting piece, Roy - many thanks for posting that! I wonder if he was genuinely confused about brother 'Clyde' being on the ship, or simply an attention seeker or possibly genuinely disturbed.

 

[Mark Robert Hopkins]

>>Phillips was, according to the latest reports, still aboard the ship when she went down.<<

I realize that the above account isn't necessarily chiseled in stone, but I thought that Phillips made it to Collapsible B. Bride's testimony and written account (or parts of them) are considered to be questionable, but I've read a couple of accounts by Bride in which he claimed Phillip's made it to Collapsible B, then they transferred to LB 12 where, supposedly, Phillips died. I presume that story is one of the questionable, if not already proven incorrect? Anyway, just thought I'd share my present thoughts...

 

[Inger Sheil]

I've personally long been skeptical of the stories that have Phillips make it to Collapsible B, Mark. Gracie looked into the matter when he was writing his book, and he found that neither Lightoller nor Bride claimed to have seen him there - both had heard later that he was aboard. Lightoller later claimed in TAOS that it was Phillips he spoke with about ships the wireless operators had been in contact with, but in his earliest accounts it was clearly Bride with whom he had these discussions. Bride's own report to Marconi had it that the last time he saw his colleague, he was heading aft after they left the wireless room. Whitely is supposed to have claimed that Phillips was on board B, but this wouldn't be the only dubious claim Whitely made.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

G'day, Inger!

>>I wonder if he was genuinely confused about brother 'Clyde' being on the ship, or simply an attention seeker or possibly genuinely disturbed.

And keep in mind that he was probably pretty 'hung over.'

Inger, you may be able to add some more to this, but quite often family members will have pet names for each other that aren't what those people are known by in the outside world. I seem to recall seeing "Clyde" Phillips somewhere else, but at this point I can't remember where. Anyway, it didn't strike me as terribly odd when I saw it in this particular article -- especially coming from "Clyde" Wiley.

Nevertheless, I should also ask you, Inger, whether, through your research, you question the existence of a Phillips half-brother. I've found evidence of a couple of supposed Titanic-survivor imposters right around here.

Hi, Mark:

>>I've read a couple of accounts by Bride in which he claimed Phillip's made it to Collapsible B, then they transferred to LB 12 where, supposedly, Phillips died.

That TNT article above was printed on April 26, when information was still being sorted out, in a city that was far removed from primary news sources. Given that, I'm amazed the western Washington newspapers did as great a job as they did reporting the disaster. I tend right now to agree with Inger that those accounts of Phillips making it to 'B' are questionable (that doesn't mean they're necessarily wrong, but we do what we can with what we've got). Bride also wrote that Phillips' was one of the bodies the Carpathia buried at sea, but this was contradicted by others, I think.

Best wishes!

Roy

 

[Inger Sheil]

Lol! Quite right there, Roy - I wrote an article for the WSJ a while back about Luis Klein, the crew imposter who claimed that there was an awful lot of swilling of champagne the night the ship went down. He told his yarn to a couple of blokes in a saloon, who then carted him off to the newspapers, so he too might have been nursing a bit of a hangover by the time Sen. Smith's men got ahold of him.

I'm not really the person to ask about Phillips, but from what Jemma Hyder has told me, no known half-brothers figure in the picture. Jemma did discover that he had an older brother who died as a baby from meningitis. Family nicknames are also a possibility (James Moody had a couple that seem utterly unrelated to his first name), but I've never heard 'Clyde' in connection with Phillips. I could be corrected on that point, however. Given that Wiley is younger than Phillips, however, I wonder how he could be a legitimate half-brother.

I do wonder if it was perhaps a justification for getting so intoxicated he wound up in the lock-up? There was a case I came across in the UK, in which a chap was hauled before a magistrate for being drunk and disorderly. When a crowd surrounded him on the street, he had demanded to be left alone, as he was a Titanic survivor and could do what he liked. It was established when he was brought up on charges that he had not been aboard the ship.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Inger!

>>I do wonder if it was perhaps a justification for getting so intoxicated he wound up in the lock-up?

Ah well, from what I've read of our area's 'tendencies' during the Alaska gold rush period, I'd say no one needed much excuse to tie one on, whether their luck was good *or* bad. '-)

Here's one of our local imposters (Walla Walla is down in Washington's southeast corner). He doesn't turn up on any passenger lists and no one seems to have ever heard of him.


THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, May 4, 1912, p. 2:

Titanic Survivor in Walla Walla.

Special to Post-Intelligencer.
WALLA WALLA, May 3.--George Rallas, Greek, a survivor of the Titanic wreck, arrived late last night to make his home here. After the big ship went down he spent three hours on a raft. A brother was drowned. Rallas speaks no English. He has relatives here.

 

[Nadine CHERUBINI]

Why was Jack never recovered since he wore a life jacket ? His body should remain on the surface.
Maybe he died drowned and not of hypothermia near Collapsible lifeboat B.
Is there an explanation ?

 

[Tad G. Fitch]

Hi Nadine, how are you? I cannot say for certain why Jack Phillips' body was not recovered. Many bodies were not recovered and certainly many of those who died were wearing lifejackets when they passed. It may be a case of the cork inside the lifejackets becoming waterlogged and losing buoyancy which could cause the bodies to sink before recovery efforts began, although this is just conjecture. As for what actually happened to Jack Phillips, there really isn't much reliable evidence that he made it to Collapsible B. You may be interested in the following webpage which talks about his fate. Look at the page entitled "The Fate of Jack Phillips". Here is the URL:

http://home.comcast.net/~georgebehe/titanic/

Hope that you find this interesting.
Cheers!
Tad