Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe
"I may as well die from the yard as from the deck."
~~Harold Lowe, volunteering to mount the rigging during a storm.
 | Harold Godfrey Lowe was born on November 21, 1882. His father, George Edward Lowe, was a jeweler and an artist, and was married to Harriet Quick. Harold had seven brothers and sisters. His oldest brother died sort of young. When Harold was 12 years old, he was out on his father's punt (a punt is an open, flat-bottom boat), and it overturned, so he swam back to shore in his clothes and boots. Later on in life, he refused to be apprenticed because he wanted to be paid for his work. He eventually ran away from home and took to the seas. He spent a lot of time on schooners, and eventually joined the West African Coast service (during which time, he was caught in a storm on a return trip from Japan and made the above comment). After that he joined the White Star Line. He is described as a plainspoken, enthusiastic seaman (the plainspoken part is very tactful. :-). He continues to fascinate Titanic scholars today--I found more information on him than I did on Captain Smith. :-) |
~~The Titanic : End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade, p. 196
| Harold Lowe was Fifth Officer aboard the Titanic. It was going to be his first time on the Atlantic run. He boarded it for the first time on March 27, and participated in the trial runs. He was also part of the lifeboat drills on April 10. During the departure from Southampton, he was manning the bridge telephones. I'm not exactly sure where he was living in 1912; one source I went to said he was living in Southampton; another one said that he could have answered along with Jack Dawson, "Well right now, my address is the R. M. S. Titanic. After that, I'm on God's good humor." |  |
~~Harold Lowe, at the Senate hearings
 | When the Titanic struck the iceberg, Officer Lowe was asleep in his quarters. It was the tradition for the quartermaster to wake people up for the shift changes, but probably, with having to uncover lifeboats and that sort of thing, the quartermaster forgot. :-) So anyway, to make a long story short, no one woke Officer Lowe up. Officer Boxhall told Officer Lowe that they had struck ice, but Officer Lowe was in that deep kind of sleep where even if you're responsive to people, you're still asleep. Y'know? Anyway, Lowe was eventually awakened by the noise on the boat deck, so he looked out the peephole in his room to see what the problem was. When he saw the people wandering around with their lifebelts on, he got dressed and grabbed his gun, just in case. Then he went on deck and started helping with the loading. He had an amusing little run-in with Ismay at lifeboat number 5, which he later retold *very* well at the hearings. I have it typed up on my Ismay page if you want to read about it. He ended up manning lifeboat number 14. As it was being lowered, passengers were lining the uncovered parts of the ship, and looked like they were about to jump in. Officer Lowe was afraid the boat would buckle. As he later explained in the Senate hearings, the capacity of 65 was what the boat would hold in water, not necessarily what it would hold when it was only being supported on two sides by ropes. Neither he nor many of the other officers had been informed of the tests they had run on the lifeboats to make sure they could be filled to capacity. Anyway, to discourage people from jumping in, he fired two or three shots down the side of the lifeboat with his rifle. He was absolutely certain he didn't hit anyone. A young man had jumped in, and some of the women had hidden him with their skirts, but Officer Lowe ordered him out anyway. He first threatened him, but seeing that that didn't do much but make the women upset, he finally said something along the lines of, "This boat is for the women and children. Be a man," and the young man got off. Also, during the lowering, the ropes got a little messed up, and his boat hung at an angle until that got straightened out. :-) Later, after the ship actually sank, he corralled boats 10, 12, and 4 with collapsible D so they would be easier to spot. Then he transferred the passengers in his lifeboat into other lifeboats so he could go back to get more people. While he was doing this, he found the infamous man dressed as a woman. He was so upset he couldn't even swear at him, so he just pitched him into the other lifeboat. After that, he went and waited near the people who were struggling in the water, in case any of them swam toward him. He didn't actually go into the mass of people, though he didn't actually go among them because he was afraid they would swamp the boat. |
"We waited too long... Well keep checking them!"
~~Fifth Officer Lowe, James Cameron's TITANIC
After the cries had stopped, his boat rowed in. Then that repulsive scene of frozen, floating corpses met his eyes. He later recalled that he noticed no female bodies around the sunken ship. He and his crew managed to pull up 3 live people. The first was a lacemaker from New York, William Hoyt. He was so large that the entire crew had to stop rowing to pull him up. He was bleeding from the nose and mouth, and died before they reached the Carpathia. They also rescued a cafe steward, Jack Stewart, who survived. Finally, they rescued an Oriental man who was lashed to a floating door:
Later that morning, he saw The Carpathia's light, and on the way, he rescued two of the Collapsibles. He left 3 dead bodies in one of them. He was the last on his lifeboat to board the Carpathia--he lowered the sail in his boat first. |  |
"Now at the age of twenty-nine, Lowe sat in the witness chair--slim, dark, and rather good-looking, with dark eyebrows in an unbroken line across the base of his high forehead. His combed-back hair was inclined to curl. His projecting cheekbones and upturned nose gave his face a cocky appearance. His salty language, good looks, and virile mannerisms immediately endeared him to a group of students from a lady's seminary among Wednesday's spectators, and Lowe was not unmindful of their attention."
~~The Titanic : End of a Dream, by Wyn Craig Wade
Lowe didn't form a very good opinion of the United States media in general, and I am rather inclined to agree with him. :) Anyway, after the hearings, he took the Adriatic back across the Atlantic, where he was met by his father and his sister Josie. During World War I, he served in the British navy and obtained the rank of commander. After that, he returned to Deganwy, Wales, where he was active in local government. In World War II, he offered his home as a sector post. He kept up a correspondence with some of the passengers who were in his lifeboat. Rene Harris, who had lost her husband, the owner of a theatre, that night, seemed to have left a big impression on him; he certainly left one on her. He rarely spoke of his role in Titanic. He married Ellen Marian Whitehouse, and they had two children together : Josephine and Harold. He died in May of 1944.
My sources include Titanic Heroes; Titanic : End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade; and A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. 
After the Carpathia docked, Lowe was called to testify at the hearings. He and Senator Smith had some rather amusing exchanges... : Smith: Are you a temperate man?
Lowe: I am, sir, I never touched it in my life.
Smith: I am very glad to have you say that.
Lowe: I say it, sir, without fear of contradiction.
Smith: I am not contradicting you, and I congratulate you upon it; but so many stories have been circulated. One has just been passed up to me now, from a reputable man, who saysit was reported that you were drinking that night.
Lowe: Me,sir? No, sir! This [hoisting a glass of water] is the strongest drink I ever take.
