ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author begins by teasing out what he understand by ‘professionalism’. It is a fuzzy-edged term embracing a number of different qualities. The author have reserved the phrase ‘sheer unadulterated professionalism’ for circumstances in which the qualities are combined with skill, experience, courage, a cool head and ‘grace under fire’. In short, it involves coping with crises and emergencies. Arthur Henry Rostron, Captain of the RMS Carpathia, first heard of the impending disaster at 12.35 am, when the 21-year-old wireless operator, Harold Cottam, and the First Officer, burst into his stateroom and woke him up. Cottam had made contact with the Titanic’swireless operator almost accidentally. After a long day, he was just about to turn in when, on a whim, he idly scanned the airwaves and tuned into Cape Cod and overheard transmissions to the titanic.