Based on the real ship, it's people, maybe a bit of A Night To Remember, and the 1997 movie
Absolutely NO drama. No blaming any of the actual people from the ship and no disrespect towards any of them. Merely a tribute to the people and I'll try to...
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January 27th, 1891 - May 30th, 1984
He is a Aquarius
Harold Thomas Cottam was a British wireless operator on the RMS Carpathia who fortuitously happened to receive the distress call from the RMS Titanic on April 15th, 1912. Cottam's decision to wake up Captain Arthur Rostron and relay Titanic's message in spite of skepticism of the officer on watch allowed Carpathia to arrive at the scene of the disaster hours before any other ship and is credited with saving hundreds of lives.
Before Serving On RMS Carpathia: Cottam was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire to William Cottom and his wife, Jane. He had 4 younger brothers. As a Macaroni employee, Cottom was subsequently assigned as a telegraphist at the British port officer. It was there he would, on two separate occasions, befriend both Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. He served as the wireless operator on the SS Medic and on which he made two voyages from Liverpool to Sydney, Australia. (Kinda ironic considering Harold Bride's middle name was Sydney).
Cottam had been employed to the Marconi Company for 3 years before joining the crew of the Carpathia in February of 1912 as the ship's sole operator.
The Titanic Rescue: On April 14th, 1912, Cottam was on the Carpathia's bridge reporting the day's communications, thus missing Titanic's first distress calls shortly after midnight. Afterward, he listened to the receiver before going to bed, waiting for a confirmation of that afternoon's communication with the SS Persian. While waiting, he received messages from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, stating they had private traffic for Titanic. Having heard Titanic's wireless operator was overworked (Jack Phillips) and because Carpathia was the nearest ship, he decided to "give him a hand."
Roughly 10 minutes after Titanic first began transmitting CQD, the wireless distress signal, Cottam relayed Cape Cod's message to Titanic. In reply, he received a distress call from Jack Phillips: "Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man." To Cottam's question whether if it was serious, Phillips reportedly replied, "Yes it's a CQD, old man. Here's the position, report it, and get here as soon as you can."
At the Senate Inquiry, Captain Rostron stated: "The whole thing was absolutely providential. I will tell you this, that the wireless operator was in his cabin, at the time, not on official business at all, but just simply listening as he was undressing. He was unlacing his boots at the time. He had this apparatus on his ear, and the message came. That was the whole thing. In 10 minutes, maybe he would have been in bed, and we would not have heard the messages."
Cottam took the message and coordinates to the bridge. According to Rostron's Senate testimony, both 1st officer Horace Dean and 2nd officer James G.P Bisset were there on watch, although Rostron was reportedly asleep in his cabin at that time. Bisset's hook and Cottam's 1956 BBC interview agree that only Dean was on watch, Bisset having already been relieved. Accounts differ on what happened next. According to Cottam in 1956, the officer on watch was slow to respond to the news. Cottam did not mention this point in either inquiry in 1912, nor in the news story he gave to the New York Times immediately upon landing in New York. Rostron also does not mention it.
