Musical Instruments

Harold Cottam

Harold Thomas Cottam (27 January 1891 – 30 May 1984) was a British wireless operator on RMS Carpathia, who received the distress call from the sinking RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. Cottam was the sole operator aboard Carpathia during that voyage. He was about to turn in when he called up the Titanic to offer a batch of telegrams when the foundering ship responded with a distress call. Cottam promptly took the message to the officer of the watch who in turn took it to Captain Arthur Rostron. He spent the next two days with no sleep, handling wireless traffic. He was eventually joined by Titanic's surviving operator Harold Bride who relieved and assisted Cottam till the ship arrived in New York with the survivors. Cottam later testified at both the inquiries into the sinking, and was awarded for his actions, along with the rest of the crew of Carpathia. Following the Titanic disaster, Cottam remained as a wireless operator till 1922, serving in World War I. He retired from seafaring after marriage and worked as a travelling salesman. He died in 1984, aged 93.

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See also

• ▸Diapason d'Or
• ▸Australian modernism
• ▸Granville Sharp

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