To hear the Titanic’s whistle,

 Titanic Ships Horn

One of the last pictures taken of the Titanic.
RMS  T I T A N I C
                    By Joe Schneider
As the Titanic sped through the darkness towards its doom, the majority of the passengers and crew had not the slightest inkling that they were in any danger at all. The lowering temperatures had long since driven the passengers off the promenade decks into the warmth of the saloons and cabins.

On the bridge, the calm routine of the night was shattered by the warning bell from the crow’s nest and Fleet’s dramatic telephone call, although Sixth Officer Moody did not forget his manners as he thanked the lookout for his report before calling across the First Officer Murdoch. “Iceberg right ahead”

Captain Smith went below to see things for himself and was accomplished by Thomas Andrews, the Harland & Wolff managing director, who probably knew as much as anybody about the ship and her construction. The latter did not take long to reach the unpalatable conclusion that the ship was mortally damaged and estimated that it would sink an hour and a half, or two hours at the outside – a remarkably accurate assessment in the circumstances.
Once armed with the Titanic’s estimated position, accurate or not, Captain Smith personally went to the radio room and ensured that it was included in all subsequent transmissions, beginning at 12:25am. The message, sent by morse code, took the form of the Titanic’s calling code MGY, then the letters CQ, which meant that it was addressed to “all ships” followed by the letter “D” indicating distress or danger. The resulting three letter group was often held to mean “Come Quick, Danger” but in fact the letters had no significance other than as outlined above. In 1908 the famous “SOS” signal was introduced, this being easier to send in morse code as it consisted of three dots, three dashes, and three dots, but it was still not in common use by 1912. Later in the evening, Jack Phillips, one of the wireless operators started using the “SOS” code instead of “CQD”, one of the first times that it had been used in an emergency.

Pictured below is the actual wireless room on Titanic, from which Bride and Phillips sent out the distress signal. The Titanic was equipped with state of the art 5KW wireless telegraphy system, installed by the Marconi company. It was guaranteed to transmit over a radius of 350 miles. The company also supplied the operators to work the new equipment.

The first radio message received at 11:45pm by the SS Birma of the Russian Eat Asiatic SS Co. The message begs for help after hitting the iceberg. Titanic gives her position as Lat 41.46 n, Long 50.14. w. The Birma was about 100 miles southwest of Titanic when her radio operator received this distress call from MYG – Titanic’s call sign.

After asking for further information the radio operator on Birma received this desperate communication from Titanic at about 1:40am: “We are sinking fast passengers being put into boats”

 

 

 


Jack Phillips – Marconi Wireless Operator.

To hear a recreation of part of one of the Titanic’s distress calls sent by Phillips just after midnight on Monday April 15, 1912,

 Titanic SOS

CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD DE MGY MGY
Miles away, a young David Sarnoff a wireless operator on Nantucket Island Massachusetts received the news of the Titanic’s collision with an iceberg. Sarnoff stayed at his key for 72 grueling hours and received the names of survivors from the rescue ship Carpathia as it approached New York.
Some twenty years later, we see David Sarnoff and Guglielmo Marconi (on the right) on a visit to the RCA Communications transmitting center at Rocky Point, Long Island, in 1933.
Resources:

Titanic by Leo Marriott

A Pictorial History of RADIO by Irving Settel

The History Of Television by Norm Goldstein

Credits:

TITANIC Ship Of Dreams – Titanic’s Whistle audio wav file.

Antique Wireless Association – Titanic’s Distress Call recreation audio wav file.
Copyright © 2004 - Vintage Radio and Phonograph Society, Inc. All rights reserved