Henry
Wilde (21st September 1872 to 15th April 1912)
Here I am at the Wilde family
grave in Kirkdale in Merseyside. Henry isn't buried
here but is mentioned in the stone carving. He died aged 39 when the Titanic
liner sank and his body was never recovered.
He was the Senior Officer (directly under the
Captain) and was a seasoned naval officer having gone to sea in his teens.
After gaining much experience on the oceans he joined the White Star Line
company in his mid twenties. Over the years he gained the qualifications
required to join the Titanic and was aboard the liner when it left Southampton
on 10th April 1912. Like many times before he was expecting to
return to his wife and six children.
Just before midnight on 14th April
1912 the liner collided with an iceberg and Henry was one of the first officers
to inspect the damage with the Titanic's designer and builder Thomas Andrews.
Sea water was flooding in and though he summon a carpenter he must have known
the damage was beyond repair. He went to the bridge to make a report - a report
which convinced Captain Smith that the ship was going down.
It took two hours and forty minutes for the liner
to sink and Henry supervised the evacuation of passengers onto lifeboats. He
helped in the loading of Lifeboats 2, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 down the lowering of
them down into the water. As panic rose he was seen leaving his cabin for the
last time saying “I am going to put on my life-belt.” The last times he was
reliably seen (alongside Officer James Moody) were (1) on roof of the officer's
quarters and then (2) helping on the ship’s starboard helping women and
children into the boats before lowering them into the ocean. Conflicting this
the Cornish Post reported on 2nd May 1912 that Henry was last seen on
the bridge smoking a cigarette and he waved goodbye to Officer Charles Lighroller. Lightoller survived
by boarding a lifeboat but didn’t confirm this claim.
What happened to Henry is unknown but he didn't
board any of the lifeboats. The final section of the liner submerged into the
Atlantic at about 2:20am. He either held on and was pulled under with the
momentum and drowned or froze. Or - before all metal was fully submerged - he
dived into the icy ocean and tried to swim away. He had a gun and could have
shot himself.
In bright sunlight I had a look at the headstone.
It’s topped with an obelisk but they’re not a popular choice these days (too
expensive I suppose.) Part of the inscription reads : Henry T. Wilde, RNR Acting Chief Officer Who Met His Death in the
"SS Titanic Disaster" 15th April 1912 aged 38. "One of Britain's Heroes." For
some reason they got the age wrong by a year. Apparently while on board Henry
wrote a letter to his sister saying he “had a queer feeling about the ship.”
The other famous grave in the cemetery there is
that of the two-year-old murder victim James Bulger
who was abducted, tortured and murdered by two older kids. Oddly both graves
are only metres apart. I did a salute at both and left.
