Up until the mid 18th Century, the Lowe family had for generations earned their living from farming, basing themselves in and around Cheshire near the Welsh/English border. Gradually, however, the family began to show a marked preponderance towards the artisan class, working as silver and goldsmiths, clockmakers and jewelers. Harold Godfrey Lowe's father, George Edward Lowe (1848 – 1928) was an artist and jeweler by profession, based in Chester and later Llandudno and Barmouth in Wales. He married a woman by the name of Harriet Quick, and the couple had eight children.
The oldest of these, George, was born in 1878. Harold, the third child and second son, was born on 21 November 1882 in his grandfather's house at Llanrhos.
Harold Lowe's boyhood was spent in Barmouth on the West coast of Wales. The family home was located near the sea, and he (along with his siblings) spent a good deal of his childhood around the shores of the Mawddach estuary. The Lowe children became familiar with sailing and boat handling, abilities that would stand Lowe in good stead in his chosen career. Eventually three of the Lowe boys would turn to seafaring as an occupation.
The spirit and courage that he would later be noted for were in evidence from a young age – one anecdote relates how, when he was twelve, a punt (a small boat) that he and his father were in capsized at sea. The boy swam half a mile to shore, no small feat considering he was still wearing his heavy boots and clothes.
His quick intelligence and dauntless character frequently led to mischief – for many years Barmouth residents would recall an incident in which he and a group of boys took a small boat so far out to sea that those ashore feared they were in danger and dispatched a lifeboat to rescue them. As it drew alongside, Harold coolly inquired where the lifeboat was bound for.
In 1895 Harold's life underwent a dramatic change when his elder brother George drowned in a tragic accident, leaving Harold as the oldest son. His relationship with his father deteriorated, and Harold finally took to sea as a ship's boy rather than take up the apprenticeship his father tried to arrange for him:
| "I ran away from home when I was about 14, and I went in a schooner. I was in seven schooners altogether, and my father wanted to apprentice me, but I said I would not be apprenticed; that I was not going to work for anybody for nothing, without any money; that I wanted to be paid for my labor. That was previous to my running away. He took me to Liverpool to a lot of offices there, and I told him once and for all that I meant what I said. I said "I am not going to be apprenticed and that settles it." |  |
| So of course I ran away and went on these schooners, and from there I went to square-rigged sailing ships, and from there to steam, and got all my certificates, and then I was for five years on the West African Coast in service there, and from there I joined the White Star Line."
US Senate Inquiry
Unlike all of his fellow Titanic officers, Lowe did not follow the traditional career route for a White Star Line officer, commencing with an apprenticeship. He took the most difficult route to becoming an officer, working upwards from the very lowest level of the shipboard hierarchy, studying for the certificates from 2nd Mate through to Master Mariner in his spare time.
Another Welsh mariner, David Roberts, who followed a similar career path, would remember some decades later what it was like for a boy to ship to sea as Lowe had done: "Life on board a Welsh schooner in those days was a particularly hard one, more kicks than ha'pence, especially for the poor boy."
A contemporary account describes what it was like to be a ship's boy:
"Well, happily, the young seafarer soon develops a wonderful capacity for patient endurance of evils not to be avoided, and, if of the true grit, in time looks back on his probationary period of suffering as training which he was glad to have endured. And the older he grows the more complacently does he recall the days when he learned to expect the blow first and the explanation afterwards, learned to eat what he could get with an appetite like an ostrich, could sleep in drenched clothing with a bare plank beneath him, and find all his consolation in the fact that soon he would be able to look down upon a newcomer with the lofty superiority of the full blown mariner." (F. Bullen)
In the course of working towards attaining his Second and First Mates certificates Lowe would ship with several lines. Serving on a variety of ships in different capacities, he would traverse much of the world: the West African Coast, the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Australia.
An incident from this early period of Lowe's career illustrates both his character and the perils of his profession. A storm at sea is still one of many hazards facing a mariner, and in the days of sail adverse conditions could be terribly destructive to the ship's complex system of masts and rigging. As David Roberts would recall, "Many a long and weary night have I spent on deck off Cape Horn, wet through very often and not even a cup of coffee to cheer me up, the ship hove-to and mountainous seas breaking aboard in all directions. I have been through one of the worst typhoons that ever swept the China Seas, and you may take my word for it that no man knows what wind is until he has been through one of these cyclonic storms. The ship was a sorry sight when the storm was over, the mast and sails all gone, every boat smashed up, the living accommodation gutted out, and over 1,000 tons of cargo ruined."
Lowe was serving as Third Officer on the voyage, and the ship was homeward bound from Japan when the weather deteriorated. During gale-force winds, the captain asked for someone to mount the rigging in the eye of the storm. Lowe volunteered immediately, saying "I will go, I may as well die from the yard as from the deck." The ship was saved.
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 | In 1910, having attained his Master's Certificate, Harold Lowe joined the White Star Line at the age of 27. Achieving a position with one of the most prestigious shipping lines in the world was a remarkable accomplishment for someone who had run away to sea to work as a ship's boy and had no formal training in the field. Lowe served as third officer on Tropic and Belgic on the Australia run, then in March 1912 was assigned to the Line's newest ship, promoted as the largest, safest, and most luxurious in the world – RMS Titanic. |
On 26 March 1912 the junior officers (Herbert Pitman, Joseph Boxhall, Harold Lowe and James Moody) received telegrams ordering them to the White Star Line's Liverpool office at 9.00am to pick up tickets for Belfast, where they were to join their new ship. They crossed to Ireland overnight, arriving on the 27 March and reporting to Chief Officer Murdoch at noon.
While many of the officers and crew had served together in other White Star Line ships (for example, Lightoller, Pitman, Moody and wireless operator John Phillips had transferred from Oceanic), Lowe knew no one aboard – a fact of which he was very conscious. "I was a total stranger in the ship and also to the run. I was a stranger to everybody on board." (US Senate Inquiry)
In addition to his unfamiliarity with his fellow crewmates, this was to be his first trip on one of the most demanding of all routes - the North Atlantic mail boat route. "It was the only place I had never been before" (US Senate Inquiry)
On April 2, 1912, Titanic underwent sea trials in Belfast Lough. With characteristic honesty and forthrightness, Lowe would freely admit that he could not recall the specific duties he performed:
Smith: What service did you render during those tests?
Lowe: I could no more tell you now than fly.
(US Senate Inquiry)
After successfully passing her sea trials, Titanic steamed the short distance to Southampton, where she would commence her maiden voyage in a week. Lowe was not on duty when the ship arrived in Southampton, having been on watch from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm that evening.
As well as attending to the usual round of duties while in port, Lowe and his fellow crewmembers made preparations for the maiden voyage (a daunting task on the huge vessel that one of his colleagues dubbed "the big omnibus"). Sailing day arrived on April 10, 1912, and in preparation for departure, Lowe and Moody tested two lifeboats for Captain Maurice Clarke of the Board of Trade as part of the Board's safety requirements. The noon departure time found Lowe on the bridge manning the telephones and relaying messages and commands given by Pilot George Bowyer to his fellow officers whose duties were to see to the many hawsers and moorings at various locations near the stem and stern of the ship.
After a delay of an hour caused by the near collision with New York, Titanic steamed across the Channel to Cherbourg for embarking and disembarking passengers and mail. The following day she arrived in Queenstown, Ireland – her last port of call before steaming into the open Atlantic.
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Part IIMain PageOfficer's Index
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