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Godalming, England Commemorate Titanic Radio Operator

Apr 15th 2012, 14:33

AI6OZ

Joined: Nov 7th 2003, 10:54
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
While the full story is interesting the key item is highlighted in red, basically is sounds like Godalming, England Amateur radio operators have set up transmitters today with a special call sign to commemorate the anniversary and Phillips' (Titanic Radio operator) dedication.

Full story at - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-titanic-telegrams-20120415,0,6482462.story

English town honors its Titanic hero
A museum in Godalming, England, mounts an exhibit on the centennial of the Titanic sinking to honor senior telegraph officer Jack Phillips, whose calm under pressure saved hundreds of lives.

By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times
April 14, 2012, 3:57 p.m.
GODALMING, England — He had just landed his biggest assignment yet, senior telegraph officer on the world's biggest ship. On the second day of its maiden voyage, he celebrated his 25th birthday.

Four days later, in the first minutes of April 15, 1912, Jack Phillips was at his post in the wireless room of the Titanic, sending out distress signals and cries for help in Morse code.

"CQD CQD," Phillips tapped out. Calling all ships — distress. "Come at once. We have struck a berg."

He relayed coordinates, listened for replies, shot back his own. He tried using the new international distress call: SOS. Over the next two hours, he pleaded for other ships to come to the Titanic's aid, increasingly urgent appeals couched in impersonal dots and dashes.
Titanic: One hundred years later
"Require immediate assistance. We have collision with iceberg.... Sinking head down.... Come soon as possible.... Women and children in boats.

"Cannot last much longer."

The flurry of missives would offer historians and buffs of the world's most famous shipwreck a trove of information, lending a sense of immediacy to events long past.

"They're the only documents from that night in real time. It's sort of like SMS messages that come out of disasters" nowadays, or texting, said Sean Coughlan, a BBC reporter and coauthor of the 1993 book "Titanic: Signals of Disaster."

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