Next year marks the centenary of the great Titanic disaster. Andy Smart explores a key local link with the tragedy...
THE young scholars from Top Valley were mesmerised as historian Graham Anthony unfolded the tragic details of the Titanic.
But they got an even greater surprise when he told pupils at Westglade Primary that their teacher Nichola Gell was the great-granddaughter of a Titanic hero.
On the night of April 15, 1912, Notts-born Harold Thomas Cottam was the radio operator on the SS Carpathia when he received a Morse code SOS from the Titanic.
He alerted his captain and the Carpathia steamed at full speed to help the stricken liner.
But by the time the Carpathia arrived on the scene in the freezing north Atlantic, the Titanic was gone, taking more than 1,500 passengers and crew to their deaths.
But 705 survivors were rescued by the Carpathia and historians have agreed that, had it not been for Cottam's alertness and swift action, they may also have been lost.
Mr Anthony, a maritime historian from Cambridge who is planning a book on Cottam's role in the saga, has no doubts that he was the most important person involved that night.
"We need to get him positioned in history," he said.
He is hoping to unveil a plaque next year during the annual book festival in Lowdham, where Harold Cottam spent the last years of his life.
And, after talks with leading figures in Southwell – Cottam's birthplace – he hopes a similar project can undertaken there.
All of which has delighted Miss Gell.
"I want people to know what an amazing man he was," said Nichola, 37, who has only a vague memory of her grea- grandfather. He died in 1984 when she was only four years old.
"I have lots of books and, in my living room, a large picture. After the incident, he was told not to say anything about it, or about the part he played – he even turned down the offer to play himself in the film A Night To Remember because of that."
Mr Cottam was doing voluntary overtime on April 15, listening to news over the telegraph and monitoring messages his friend Jack Phillips was sending from the Titanic radio room to arrange a celebration dinner for when the Titanic arrived in New York.
Then he switched wavelengths — just as the Titanic struck an iceberg.
Less than an hour later, Mr Cottam finally decided it was time to turn in.
But as he was about to leave the telegraph room, he thought about his friend and put the earphones back on.
What he heard was the ship's position being transmitted.
"Does this mean you need immediate assistance?" he sent back.
"Yes, yes, yes," came the desperate reply.
Mr Cottam ran to his captain Arthur Rostron's cabin and shook him awake. At Cottam's insistence, the captain ordered the Carpathia to change course and make for the Titanic, 58 miles away.
From the Titanic came only silence.
When the Carpathia arrived three hours later, they found a mass of wreckage floating on the surface: doors, cases, clothes — and frozen survivors.
For the next four days, Mr Cottam neither slept nor had a decent meal as he tapped out the names and addresses of the survivors to New York.
When the Carpathia docked, he was tricked into going ashore by reporters who told him Mr Marconi wanted to see him.
The lie enabled them to interview a man with a remarkable story, and the ex-Southwell Minster Grammar School boy became something of hero.
But he preferred to stay out of the limelight and, after his seafaring days, he returned home to Notts.
He went to work at the ROF Gun Factory in The Meadows, lived in Chaworth Grove, West Bridgford, and then in a nursing home in Lowdham, where he died in 1984 at the age of 93.
Almost a century on, his great-granddaughter, understandably proud of her illustrious ancestor, said: "Listening to the story again, I got goosebumps."
From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Bygones-great-grandad-greatest-hero-Titanic/story-13951445-detail/story.html
THE young scholars from Top Valley were mesmerised as historian Graham Anthony unfolded the tragic details of the Titanic.
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Looking back: Nichola Gell, and historian Graham Anthony at Westglade Primary School.
On the night of April 15, 1912, Notts-born Harold Thomas Cottam was the radio operator on the SS Carpathia when he received a Morse code SOS from the Titanic.
He alerted his captain and the Carpathia steamed at full speed to help the stricken liner.
But by the time the Carpathia arrived on the scene in the freezing north Atlantic, the Titanic was gone, taking more than 1,500 passengers and crew to their deaths.
But 705 survivors were rescued by the Carpathia and historians have agreed that, had it not been for Cottam's alertness and swift action, they may also have been lost.
Mr Anthony, a maritime historian from Cambridge who is planning a book on Cottam's role in the saga, has no doubts that he was the most important person involved that night.
"We need to get him positioned in history," he said.
He is hoping to unveil a plaque next year during the annual book festival in Lowdham, where Harold Cottam spent the last years of his life.
And, after talks with leading figures in Southwell – Cottam's birthplace – he hopes a similar project can undertaken there.
All of which has delighted Miss Gell.
"I want people to know what an amazing man he was," said Nichola, 37, who has only a vague memory of her grea- grandfather. He died in 1984 when she was only four years old.
"I have lots of books and, in my living room, a large picture. After the incident, he was told not to say anything about it, or about the part he played – he even turned down the offer to play himself in the film A Night To Remember because of that."
Mr Cottam was doing voluntary overtime on April 15, listening to news over the telegraph and monitoring messages his friend Jack Phillips was sending from the Titanic radio room to arrange a celebration dinner for when the Titanic arrived in New York.
Then he switched wavelengths — just as the Titanic struck an iceberg.
Less than an hour later, Mr Cottam finally decided it was time to turn in.
But as he was about to leave the telegraph room, he thought about his friend and put the earphones back on.
What he heard was the ship's position being transmitted.
"Does this mean you need immediate assistance?" he sent back.
"Yes, yes, yes," came the desperate reply.
Mr Cottam ran to his captain Arthur Rostron's cabin and shook him awake. At Cottam's insistence, the captain ordered the Carpathia to change course and make for the Titanic, 58 miles away.
From the Titanic came only silence.
When the Carpathia arrived three hours later, they found a mass of wreckage floating on the surface: doors, cases, clothes — and frozen survivors.
For the next four days, Mr Cottam neither slept nor had a decent meal as he tapped out the names and addresses of the survivors to New York.
When the Carpathia docked, he was tricked into going ashore by reporters who told him Mr Marconi wanted to see him.
The lie enabled them to interview a man with a remarkable story, and the ex-Southwell Minster Grammar School boy became something of hero.
But he preferred to stay out of the limelight and, after his seafaring days, he returned home to Notts.
He went to work at the ROF Gun Factory in The Meadows, lived in Chaworth Grove, West Bridgford, and then in a nursing home in Lowdham, where he died in 1984 at the age of 93.
Almost a century on, his great-granddaughter, understandably proud of her illustrious ancestor, said: "Listening to the story again, I got goosebumps."
From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Bygones-great-grandad-greatest-hero-Titanic/story-13951445-detail/story.html
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