Early life
Harold Godfrey Lowe was born in Llanrhos, Caernarvonshire, Wales, on 21 November 1882, the fourth of eight children, born to George Edward and Emma Harriette Quick. His father had ambitions for him to be apprenticed to a successful Liverpool businessman, but Harold was determined to go to sea.
At 14, Harold ran away from his home in Barmouth where he had attended school and joined the Merchant Navy, serving along the West African Coast. He started as a ship’s boy aboard the Welsh coastal schooners as he worked to attain his certifications.
In 1906, Harold passed his certification and gained his second mate’s certificate, then in 1908, he attained his first mate’s certificate. By the time he started with the White Star Line, in 1911, he had gained his Master’s certificate and, in his own words, “experience with pretty well every ship afloat – the different classes of ships afloat – from the schooner to the square-rigged sailing vessel, and from that to steamships, and of all sizes.”
Harold served as third officer on White Star’s the Belgic and the Tropic before being transferred to Titanic as Fifth Officer in 1912. Despite his numerous years at sea, the maiden voyage of the Titanic was to be his first transatlantic crossing.
Titanic
Like the ship’s other junior officers, Harold reported to White Star’s Liverpool offices at nine o’clock in the morning on 26 March 1912, and travelled to board Titanic at Belfast the following day. On sailing day (10 April), Harold assisted (among other things) in the lowering of two of the starboard lifeboats to satisfy the Board of Trade that Titanic met safety regulations.
When Titanic departed Southampton at noon, Harold was on the bridge, relaying messages to various parts of the ship by telephone. He claimed he felt like an outsider while aboard the Titanic as he had never worked with the other officers before and they had all travelled over the Atlantic before while he had not.
White Star operated a watchkeeping system whereby the three senior officers worked the same four-hour watches in every 12-hour period while the junior officers stood the traditional system of four hours on/four hours off with the rest of the Titanic’s deck department. This was divided into two watches (designated Port and Starboard) and pairs of junior officers were assigned to each watch. Harold was assigned to the Port Watch standing duties with Third Officer Herbert Pitman.
On 14 April 1912, the night of the sinking, Harold had been relieved at 8.00 PM by Sixth Officer Moody and was asleep in his quarters when the ship hit the iceberg at 11.40 PM. He remained asleep through the collision, but woke up 30 minutes later. As he explained later: “We officers do not have any too much sleep, and therefore when we sleep, we die.”
When he finally awakened and realised the situation, he immediately got dressed and went to work; it isn’t fully known when he got his pistol (described by Harold as a “Browning Automatic”), it may have been as he was dressing or it may have been later during the 15 minutes his whereabouts were unknown, which may have been the time he went back to his room.
Third Officer Pitman charged him with loading lifeboat No. 5. During this time, he ordered the White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay away from the boat, telling him to “…get to hell out of that…”. Around 1.30 AM, Harold engaged in a conversation with Sixth Officer Moody: While launching lifeboats Nos. 14 and 16 on the port side of the ship, the two junior officers felt that this group of boats needed to have an officer with them. Moody insisted that Harold should get onto lifeboat No. 14 and that he would get on another lifeboat.
By the time lifeboat 14 was being launched, things were beginning to get precarious on the boat deck as the majority of passengers began to realise that the giant ship was foundering. As lifeboat 14 was descending, Lowe used his pistol to fire three shots along the side of the ship in order to frighten away a group of men attempting to leap into the lifeboat.
During the Senate Inquiries, Harold was emphatic in stating that he had not hit anyone, saying that he had looked where he was shooting. During the commotion Harold was reported to have said ‘get back or I’ll shoot you all like dogs’. As of 2022, it remains definitively unknown who fired the shots.
Inquiries
The four surviving officers of Titanic. From left to right, Harold Lowe, Charles Lightoller, Joseph Boxhall. Sitting: Herbert Pitman.
The Titanic survivors arrived at Pier 54 in New York on 18 April. Immediately upon landing Harold was served with a warrant which called upon him to testify in the American inquiry into the sinking. His testimony in the American Senate Hearing was direct, often to the point of being flippant; when asked what an iceberg was composed of, he responded, “Ice, I suppose, sir.”
According to Titanic’s Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the surviving officers considered the inquiry ‘a farce’ and were highly resentful owing to perceived poor treatment by the American authorities. They were especially bemused that an enquiry into the sinking of a ship was being conducted by men with no knowledge of sailing, or the sea.
Harold boarded the Adriatic on 2 May to return to England, where he went on to participate in the corresponding British inquiry.
Life after the Titanic
Upon Harold‘s return to his home town of Barmouth 1,300 people attended a reception held in his honor at the Picture Pavilion. He was presented with a commemorative gold watch, with the inscription “Presented to Harold Godfrey Lowe, 5th officer R.M.S. Titanic by his friends in Barmouth and elsewhere in recognition and appreciation of his gallant services at the foundering of the Titanic 15th April 1912.”
In September 1913, Harold married Ellen Marion Whitehouse and they had two children, Florence Josephine who was born in 1914 and Harold William who was born while Harold was serving in World War I.
Harold served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War and saw service in Vladivostok during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, attaining the rank of Lieutenant, RNR.
After the war he returned to serve with International Mercantile Marine ships and the White Star Line, retiring in 1931 to Deganwy with his family.
During World War II he volunteered his home as a sector post and served as an Air Raid Warden until ill health obliged him to take to a wheelchair.
Death
Harold died of hypertension on 12 May 1944 at the age of 61. His body was buried at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos churchyard in Rhos-on-Sea in North Wales.
