1912

Titanic Links

 

 

 

From:   John Gilbert

2 April 2012

 

There have been several articles recently on the sinking of the Titanic. I have always been interested in the role that radio communications played in the rescue operation.

 

There is an article in National Geographic, April 2012, entitled "Unseen Titanic" by Hampton Sides. On page 99 he tells the story of the first person to receive the distress signal from the sinking ship. He mentions that Marconi had built a permanent wireless station at Cape Race. He then says that locals claim that the first person to receive the distress signal was Jim Myrick, then a 14-year-old wireless apprentice. Then he says that the initial signal was CQD, but then Cape Race received the new signal SOS.

 

I worked with the late Vince Myrick in DOC. He told me that his oldest brother had been the first person to receive the distress signal, so if Jim was his oldest brother then Vince confirmed this story to me.

 

But....

 

There is an article in Canada`s History, April May, 2012, entitled "Have Struck Iceberg" by Paul Butler. The article starts out saying that the news of the disaster came to North America at 10:25 pm Eastern time on April 14, 1912 with the reception of the CQD call. He says that Jack Goodwin, one of three operators at Cape Race received the call. He also says that Cape Race had been receiving "more mundane" traffic from the ship earlier. The earlier exchange was between Walter Gray, Cape Race`s supervising operator and John Phillips, the Titanic`s senior wireless operator. Gray apparently later wrote about the incident in his autobiography.

 

Here is the Cape Race log:

 

 

The story is told here

 

 

 

There are several videos on the topic.

 

Maybe Myrick, being an apprentice, was not listed as an official operator.

 

John Gilbert

 

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