20 Facts About Harold Cottam

Harold Thomas Cottam was a British wireless operator on the RMS Carpathia who fortuitously happened to receive the distress call from the sinking RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912.

Harold Cottam was born on 27 January 1891 in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, to William Harold Cottam and his wife Jane.

At 17, Harold Cottam left home to study eleven months at the British College of Telegraphy in London, becoming the school's youngest graduate in 1908.

Harold Cottam served as the wireless operator aboard the SS Medic, on which he made two voyages from Liverpool to Sydney, Australia.

Harold Cottam had been employed by the Marconi Company for three years before joining the crew of the Carpathia in February 1912 as the ship's sole wireless operator.

Roughly ten minutes after Titanic first began transmitting CQD, the wireless distress signal, Harold Cottam relayed Cape Cod's message to Titanic.

Harold Cottam had this apparatus on his ear, and the message came.

Harold Cottam did not mention this point in either inquiry in 1912, nor in the news story he gave to the New York Times immediately upon landing in New York.

Unable to convince Dean quickly enough, Harold Cottam rushed down the ladder to the captain's cabin and awakened Rostron.

However, Harold Cottam testified that while Carpathia sped to Titanics position, he was kept busy relaying messages from other ships in the area that Phillips was having difficulty hearing because of noise from the sinking ship.

Harold Cottam recalled seeing floating wood and debris at the scene, but no bodies.

Immediately upon Carpathia's arrival in New York, Harold Cottam told the Senate inquiry, he received his employer's permission to meet with the New York Times, which bought his story for $750.

Harold Cottam testified that, although he was an employee of the Marconi Company, aboard ship, the captain's orders superseded those of the company.

The British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry report made no remark about Harold Cottam beyond noting that the Carpathia received and responded to Titanics distress call.

The fact that Harold Cottam had received Titanics distress calls by chance, while the SS Californian, which was much closer, missed the calls entirely added to the evidence for consistent safety measures regarding wireless and led to the Radio Act of 1912, requiring all ships to man wireless distress frequencies around the clock.

Harold Cottam received a "hero's welcome" when the Carpathia reached New York.

Harold Cottam was modest about his role in the disaster and, outside a few interviews, rarely spoke of it to friends and family, preferring privacy.

Harold Cottam turned down an offer to play himself in the 1958 film A Night to Remember.

Harold Cottam continued to work as a shipboard wireless operator on various ships until 1922, when he married Elsie Jean Shepperson and took a job as a sales representative of the Mini Max Fire Extinguisher company.

Harold Cottam retired and, in 1958, moved to Lowdham, Nottinghamshire, where he died in 1984.