Harold Lowe, the unsung hero of the Titanic disaster

Book review of a Titanic biography.

I just finished Titanic Valour: The Life of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the biography of the 28-year-old Titanic officer who is best known as “the guy with the gun.” Most people remember the shooting scene from the movie. It’s a turning point scene; it’s when Cal tells his servant that things are “starting to fall apart” and this is more serious than they thought. But that’s pretty much all you see of Harold Lowe. Lowe was such a minor character that few people realize the “guy with the gun” is also the guy who returns to the wreck to pick up survivors. (In the movie, he finds Rose floating on a door; in real life, it was a Chinese guy they found atop a door — a scene that James Cameron cut from the movie.) No one even calls him by his full name. In fact, the only time Lowe’s name is ever mentioned in the movie is when Officer Lightoller says, “Mr. Lowe, man this boat,” and hands him his revolver. This is right after Lightoller tells a group of unruly men he’ll “shoot them all like dogs,” while Lowe comes across as Lightoller’s polite, level-headed junior officer.

I know a lot about the Titanic, so I knew most of the movie was impeccably accurate in detail while getting the characters all wrong. For starters, James Cameron basically reversed Lowe and Lightoller’s actions and personalities…