Harold Lowe

Harold Lowe

Harold Godfrey Lowe (born November 21, 1882 in Llanrhos , Wales , † May 12, 1944 in Deganwy , Wales) was the fifth officer of the RMS Titanic . He was the fourth highest officer to survive the sinking.

Youth and education

Harold Lowe was born to George and Harriet Lowe. His father wanted to apprentice him to a successful businessman, but Harold preferred to go to sea and ran away from home at the age of 14. After a few years of training in the merchant marine, he joined the White Star Line in 1911 . He had not made a transatlantic voyage before serving on the Titanic .

Titanic

When the Titanic collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 11:40 p.m., Lowe was off duty and was sleeping in his quarters. He did not wake up from the impact, but only a little later from loud voices in front of his cabin and immediately went on deck. There he initially assisted first officer William M. Murdoch and third officer Herbert Pitman on the starboard side in manning the lifeboats . This led to a dispute with Bruce Ismay , the director of the White Star Line, when he tried to urge him to hurry off boat no. 5. Lowe then reprimanded him for not being responsible for the capsizing of the boat.

With the sinking of the ship becoming more and more apparent, the unrest on the deck of the Titanic increased steadily.

When more men tried to get on board while the boat was being lowered, Lowe fired three warning shots with his weapon, preventing them from getting on the boat. Shortly afterwards Lowe grabbed another without further ado and threw him out again.

At around 1:30 am he and sixth officer James P. Moody manned lifeboats 14 and 16. Since one of the boats was supposed to be led by an officer, they discussed which of them should go on board. The younger Moody suggested that Lowe take over # 14 while he went to look for someone else himself. Moody did not survive the disaster. At gunpoint, Lowe asked a young man who was trying to hide in lifeboat No. 14 to leave the boat. When the latter pleaded with him to stay, Lowe appealed to him to let women and children go first, and the young man climbed back on board weeping. In fact, there were at least two places left in boat # 14; the Encyclopedia Titanica even lists only 37 out of a possible 65 inmates.

The surviving officers of the Titanic, left to right: Harold Lowe, Charles Lightoller , Joseph Boxhall . Sitting in front: Herbert Pitman .

After the Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m., Lowe wanted to return to the site of the accident to pick up possible survivors. However, he feared that these could capsize the boat. So Lowe organized a gathering of five boats on the open sea and had the passengers transferred from his own to the others, only to row back as one of only two boats. In the meantime, however, most of the calls from the place of destruction had ceased. He was only able to pick up four survivors, one of whom died of his injuries during the night. In the early hours of the morning they were taken on board by the RMS Carpathia .

Further life

Lowe was interviewed several times in subsequent investigations into the disaster. In September 1913 he married Ellen Marion Whitehouse, with whom he had two children, Florence Josephine Edge Lowe and Harold William George Lowe. During World War I he served in the Royal Navy and became a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. Harold Lowe died in May 1944.

Movie

In the 1997 film Titanic , his character was played by Ioan Gruffudd .

Web links

• Harold Lowe in the Encyclopedia Titanica (English)
• Harold Lowe at titanic-titanic.com (English)