A CQD is not ambiguous. An operator receiving that call is required to instantly relay it to his captain. You don’t ask questions. You don’t have to. The call is, as Harold Bride would say later, “the whole thing in a nutshell.” As Jack Phillips tapped out one CQD after another, the Frankfurt contacted him again. The message read, “What is the matter with you?”
Jack stared at it, dumbstruck at first, then enraged. What sort of ship, he asked Harold, would hire an idiot to run its wireless? The Frankfurt was useless. In any case, Jack was in communication with the Carpathia, and unable to stay in touch with two ships at the same time. His fingers made a loud, staccato sound as he tapped his response to the Frankfurt: “You fool. Standby and keep out.”
Jack drummed his hands on the table. His rage nearly overwhelmed him, and he knew why, for his infuriating exchange with the Frankfurt had brought a fearsome fact to light: the lives of the Titanic’s passengers depended on his ability to summon help from another vessel.
Abruptly, he handed the headset to Harold and left the wireless shack, saying that he was going to take a look around. But it was such an odd moment to leave his post that he may have had an additional motive. By then, crew members in the lower reaches of the ship understood the situation. “You haven’t a half hour to live,” one man told another. “That is from Mr. Andrews. Keep it to yourself and let no one know.”
But on the Boat Deck, only the Captain and Mr. Andrews knew the full extent of the damage the iceberg had caused, for they had seen water filling the mail room and lapping against the service line in the squash court. They were passing this information on, but selectively; no one had a greater need to know it than Jack.
Did either man tell Jack what he had seen? Did Jack find Roberta and pass the information on? You can picture him: not wanting to alarm her but determined to make sure that she knew enough to flee to safety. All that can be known for certain is that shortly after Jack left the wireless shack, Roberta burst into the Countess’s stateroom and told her what no other passenger knew: that water was pouring into the squash court. It was daunting news. Yet even then, such was their faith in the ship that it did not occur to them that they were imperiled. The Countess readjusted Roberta’s life belt and gave her some brandy. “Now go straight up to the Boat Deck,” she told her.