Martin Moran as Harold Bride
The following are comments from Martin Moran who plays Harold Bride in the musical Titanic. He did some research!
I'm sure for Harold Bride it must have been thrilling to be part of this pioneering profession of wireless telegraphy. The wireless operators were among the most celebrated heroes of the disaster because they stayed at their post wiring other ships to come to the Titanic's aid. And this was the first use of SOS as a cry for help.
It's interesting to note that the wireless operators didn't work for the Titanic. They worked for Marconi--the genious, noble winning physicist that designed the wireless. So, they were leased to the ship.
Harold Bride was really the first computer nerd, if you want to call him that. This was a man, a very young man, who had lived his life in a very inttroverted fashion--very shy--didn't work well with groups. Hardly left his home. But try to imagine a man in 1912, in that situation who can take his finger on this little machine and press it down on a telegraph key and it could be heard in Calcutta. It's the first world wide web. The first chat room.
The whole thing was a phenomenon. It's still mysterious. Kind of spiritual or mystical that this electricity got through the air and people didn't understand it. Captain Smith says "I'll never understand the damn thing."
He suddenly felt part of the world. A part of something that was bigger than him.
