Before the collision with the iceberg, Phillips and his assistant, Harold Bride, had acknowledged and passed along several ice warnings to the bridge.

[2] Phillips lived with his five siblings, of whom only two twin sisters survived to adulthood, above a draper's shop – Gammons – which his father managed in Farncombe Street.

[1] Titanic sailed for New York City, United States, from Southampton, England, on 10 April 1912, and during the voyage Phillips and Bride transmitted passengers' personal messages and received iceberg warnings and other navigational information from other ships.

Though some have argued that that these two communications led to the failure of the iceberg being spotted, several ice warnings from other ships had already been received and communicated to Captain Edward Smith on the bridge – including an earlier one from the Californian – so he was aware that there was ice in the area before the warnings of Mesaba and Californian came in, and two lookouts were posted for that night.

Shortly after midnight, Captain Smith came in again and told them to send out the call for assistance and gave them Titanic's estimated position.

Phillips began sending out the distress signal, code CQD, while Bride took messages to Captain Smith about which ships were coming to Titanic's assistance.

After taking a quick break, Phillips returned to the wireless room and reported to Bride that the forward part of the ship was flooded, and they should put on more clothes and lifebelts.

The wireless power was almost completely out shortly after 02:00, when Captain Smith arrived and told the men they had done their duty and were relieved.

While their backs were turned, a crew member (either a stoker or trimmer) sneaked in and attempted to steal Phillips's lifebelt.

[6] Conflicting and contradictory information led to popular belief that Phillips possibly managed to make it to the overturned Collapsible B, which was in the charge of Second Officer Charles Lightoller, along with Harold Bride but did not last the night.

[5] However, when testifying in the Senate Inquiry, Bride changed his story, saying that he had only been told that Phillips died on Collapsible B, and was later buried at sea from Carpathia and had not witnessed this for himself.

[7] It is clear from Gracie and other 1912 evidence that the man on the upturned collapsible who called out the names of approaching ships was Harold Bride, not Jack Phillips, as Lightoller thought in 1935.