Jack Phillips

[Brandon Whited]

Hello,

Great stuff Jemma! I signed your guestbook. I notice you had a picture of Phillips' grave. Is that marker just in his memory, or was his body actually found? I always heard his body, if recovered, was never identified. I never understood that though, as Harold Bride later stated it was lying in the bottom of the lifeboat they were transferred to (can't remember the number).


Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Brandon,

That grave is indeed just a marker as Phillips' body, if recovered was never identified. It is however a family grave so Jack's parents and his two sisters are all buried there. The main stone is for him and it is bordered by a square, each side has the names of the rest of the family. The stories of Jack's body goes that he was on lifeboat B, and one source states it was moved into no. 12 before being transferred onto the Carpathia, others dont mention it after boat B.

Cheers

Jemma

 

[Minna Tiihonen]

Hey all,

Why is it that every time people speak of the wireless boys, especially Jack, I fail to check the Message Board???

However, thank you Jemma for all those pictures and that information, I was one of those who was eager to get some a few months ago... thanks, thanks, thanks!

Myself I'm 17 now and I've been a true fan of the ship since 1997. The wireless boys are close to my hear, though I have no idea why. At the moment I'm working on my webpage, and the wireless boys - Jack and the two Harolds - will play a big part there, naturally

Minna

 

[Jason Veichman]

So what happened to Jack's body remains a mystery then - I always thought that after Lowe's flotilla of boats reached collapsibles A&B (B being the lifeboat that Jack died in), the survivors from A&B were hauled into Lowes boat and the dead were left in the collapsibles to drift away. I always assumed that Phillips was one of the dead that was left in the boat and perhaps picked up by Mackay-Bennett. After reading some of the postings, I could very well be wrong (Jack's name is not on the list of recovered bodies).

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Jason,

It is highly unlikely that Jack actually did end up on boat B. Brief explanation: Harold Bride never actually saw him, he was taking his information from other people, never claiming anything more that that he was told by someone else that Phillips was on the raft with him. I believe the only account that differs is the New York Time account, which is highly unreliable. Lightoller never mentioned his conversation with Jack until his memoirs many years after the disaster and it's probable that it never happened. In the aftermath of the disaster he never claimed to have spoken with Jack or seen him.
In any case it appears that Jack was one of the many bodies never recovered. He was wearing a uniform and I would hope that someone would have noticed this. Harold Bride also gathered personal effects for Jack before they left the wireless cbin so he could well have had something that identified him on his person and nothing of that sort was ever found.

 

[Dave Gittins]

At the British civil trial, Bride agreed with barrister Henry Duke, when he suggested that Phillips was swept from the deck and drowned. That's in line with another account in which Bride said that the last he saw of Phillips he was running aft.

Elsewhere on this forum there are two versions of the passage in Lightoller's book in which he mentions Phillips on collapsible B. They demonstrate the unreliabilty of his account, written long after the fact.

 

[Ben Holme]

Hi Jason,

Just to clarify, Lowe's flotilla eventually dispersed, #14 under Lowe's command towards the wreck site, #12 and #4 towards the men on collpasible B, #10 making its own way to the Carpathia (then in sight) and D making virtually no headway at all. Lowe encountered the swamped collapsible A, took off its survivors and left behind 3 bodies. He had nothing to do with the rescue of B's survivors, that task being undertaken by #12 and #4 under the respective commands of Poindestre (sp?) and Perkis. Although one body was taken off and subsequently buried from the Carpathia, it was probably that of David Lishvin. No bodies were left aboard B. If Phillips was ever aboard boat B (which I personally stongly doubt for reasons aforementioned) he would have been among those who perished and fell over the side (as described by Algernon Barkworth and others) well before succor arrived.

Hope this helps,
Ben

 

[Minna Tiihonen]

Jemma

I remember you telling us earlier that you were working on a book about Jack? Just wanted to ask how is the project going...?

hugs,
Minna

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Hi Minna,

The wireless operator research is proving very productive at the moment. I've just posted some details in the "Titanic on the web" section about a new website Inger Sheil and I have been working on that will contain information on Jack

 

[Adam McGuirk]

I would like to know more about Phillips myself. The crew has allways intruged me. Speeking of young buffs I'm still 14 but will be 15 on 8/13. I feel glad to see that theres other young buffs out there. That means Titanic interest is shifting into a whole new generation.
Adam

 

[Elizabeth Rose Blackburn]

Don't you think that the story of Harold Bride and John 'Jack' Phillips is one of the most intriguing and interesting of all of them?
Right now I'm working on a report about them for Lit class, after reading "A Night to Remember." If anyone has any tidbits of info for me, that would be great.
Yeah, I'm a young buff too. I'm just fourteen, but you would be amazed at what I've learned in my research.
I suppose it was Kate and Leo (Rose and Jack) that opened up my generations eyes to the Titanic and that night's tragedy. After seeing that movie I wanted to know more. Anything related interested me, and then I was only 10!
Anyone who hasn't read "A Night to Remember" cannot call themselves a buff till they go cover to cover. It's the most wonderful piece of literature I have ever read concerning the Titanic.

Elizabeth Rose

 

[Dave Gittins]

Elizabeth, beware of mis-information on this topic. There's a good deal of hot air circulating on the Internet.

For something based on documentation and personal contacts, go to www nautical-papers com This site is not yet complete, but it is the work of expert researchers.

There's a good deal about the work of the radio officers on my own site at users senet com au/~gittins/radio.html

For technical information, go to www flash net/~sparks12/titanic.html

There's quite a lot of incorrect material on the radio floating about, but Parks will put you right.

 

[Jemma Hyder]

Elizabeth,

The Nauitcal Papers website mentioned by Dave is the one authored by myself and Inger Sheil. If you cant find all the info you'd like on there feel free to email me privately.

Jemma

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Dave is modest. To get the big picture about the wireless operators and their tasking aboard Titanic, I would recommend that you go to his site first. From there, you can decide what interests you the most...the lives of the operators or the technical aspects of the apparatus. You'll find more personal information about the operators at Inger's and Jemma's site, and a dry technical description of the apparatus at my site. And of course, we're all available via e-mail to field any questions that you can't find answers to on the sites mentioned.

Parks

 

[Dave Gittins]

I'm very modest, and I'm proud of that!

I've just made a few small changes to the radio page and there's a link to Parks's site on it.

The page by Inger and Jemma is going to be a ripper. They are most generous in making such fine work publicly available.