The electrical generators and radio equipment on board the Titanic were the best available at the time...
The senior wireless operator was John "Jack" Phillips, age 25, and the junior operator was 21 year old Harold Bride...
On the night of April 14, 1912, the two radio operators were busy trying to catch up on a back-log of traffic, which had built up from the night before because of some problem with the ship's radio equipment. Phillips had fixed the problem by 5:00 A.M., but there was apparently a lot of passenger traffic to be sent by the time he did...
One of the first messages he was to receive was from another ship, warning of ice...
A similar warning was received from the Greek steamer Athina...
Several other similar reports were copied, and delivered to the Captain of the Titanic...
At 9:30 PM, Phillips received another ice warning, this one from the ship Masaba, to which Phillips replied, "thanks," and resumed sending passenger traffic. The Masaba message warned of a huge field of ice, miles wide, but the Titanic continued to steam ahead at near her maximum speed of 20-23 knots.
At 10:55 PM, the freighter Californian sent another ice warning to the Titanic, stating, "We are stopped and surrounded by ice," to which Phillips replied, "Shut up!" "We are busy working Cape Race." (Cape Race Wireless, in Newfoundland)
At 11:40 PM, on Sunday, April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg,
The Radio Legacy of the R.M.S. Titanic (by Dwight A. Johnson, KI5WI)
