Lee AWA Review Titanic - Lessons for Emergency Communica- tions 2012 Bartholomew Lee Author She went to a freezing North Atlantic grave a hundred years ago, April 15, 1912, hav- By Bartholomew ing slit her hull open on an iceberg she couldn’t Lee, K6VK, Fellow avoid. Her story resonates across time: loss of of the California life, criminal arrogance, heroic wireless opera- Historical Radio tors, and her band playing on a sinking deck, Society, copyright serenading the survivors, the dying and the dead 2012 (no claim to as they themselves faced their own cold wet images) but any demise. The S.S. Titanic is the ship of legend.1 reasonable use The dedication to duty of the Marconi wire- may be made of less operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, this note, respect- is both documented and itself legendary.2 Phil- ing its authorship lips stuck to his key even after Captain Edward and integrity, in Smith relieved him and Bride of duty as the ship furtherance of bet- sank. Phillips’ SOS and CQD signals brought the ter emergency com- rescue ships, in particular the S.S. Carpathia. munications. Phillips died of exposure in a lifeboat; Bride Plese see the survived.3 author description This note will present some of the Marconi at the end of the wireless messages of April 14. Any kind of work article, Wireless -- under stress is challenging. In particular stress its Evolution from degrades communications, even when effective Mysterious Won- communications can mean life or death. Art der to Weapon of Botterel4 once summed it up: “Stress makes you War, 1902 to 1905, stupid.” The only protection is training. As he in this volume at has also famously said: “In a time of disaster, page 183. you will not rise to the occasion, you will sink Correspondence to your level of training.” is invited: KV- In 1912 on the North Atlantic, Marconi [email protected]. ruled the ether. Marconi operators manned each English ship’s wireless room. Relays and inter-ship communications were the order of the day. Messages enjoyed precedence, from “routine” on up. After distress (CQD/SOS), a message for a vessel’s master had the highest priority, so much so that by protocol it had to be acknowledged by the master. A message for a ship’s captain got a prefi x of “MSG.” At 7:50 PM the S.S. Mesaba, to the West of the Titanic, sent a warning specifi cally to the Titanic: Volume 25, 2012 253 Titanic - Emergency Communications “In lat 42N to 41.25N long 49W to long 50.30W saw much The Mesaba operator sent this heavy pack ice and great number message not with the prefi x MSG of large icebergs also fi eld ice. but with a prefi x “Ice report.” It Weather good, clear.” never got to Captain Smith. Phil- Figure 1, Mesaba Marconi “Service Form” record sheet for the message.5 254 AWA Review Lee lips received but did not send it to The 6:22 PM Marconigram from the bridge. He was overwhelmed Charles Norris to a relative shows the by routine passenger messages nature of the messages that distracted outward to Cape Race station in Phillips: Newfoundland.6 Phillips, dying of hypothermia “Arrive Wednesday Titanic in a lifeboat early in the morning of Sent Marconigram Hope you are April 15, told the Titanic’s Second fi ne ” Officer that he had the Mesaba message at his elbow under a pa- Other steamers also sent the Titanic perweight in the midst of the rush ice warnings. At 7:10 AM on April 14, to send the delayed passenger traf- the S.S. Caronia, with the high priority fi c to Cape Race.7 pre x MSG, transmitted: Of course, in perfect hindsight, the Mesaba operator erred in not To: Captain Titanic West- assigning a MSG priority to the bound steamers report bergs message. Secondly, Phillips erred growlers and fi eld-ice 42 N from in failing to heed the substance of 49 to 51 West April 12th” the message, and thus failing to alert the Captain. But the funda- At 5:35 PM, the Caronia sent an- mental error was that of the White other message to Captain Smith, but a Star Line, the Titanic’s corporate private one: master: pandering to the vanity of First Class passengers wanting “To: Commander Titanic All the prestige of having sent a “wire- best wishes success much love less” -- a Marconigram -- from the George and Kate Riggs” world’s premier steamship, at the risk of the safety of the ship. This message (figure 4) was marked MSG. That indication is Figure 2, Received by Canadian Marconi at Cape Race, Newfoundland. Volume 25, 2012 255 Titanic - Emergency Communications Figure 3, the Caronia’s message number 1/1, likely the fi rst of the day. From this and other ice warnings, Captain Smith had notice of the risk. But the White Star Line wanted a fast crossing, perhaps a record. Figure 4. Private message from the Caronia to “Commander Titanic”. 256 AWA Review Lee crossed out on the Caronia’s re- albeit in hindsight, one can say that cord copy but there is no way to ice warnings should have been pre- know if the prefi x went out with fi xed MSG. The Marconi company the message. This sort of incoming should have trained its operators to message also distracts from atten- do so. With even more confi dence tion to possibly more important one can say it was a failure on the traffic and degrades situational Marconi company’s part, as of awareness, both on the wireless 1912, not to train it operators to operator’s part and that of the rate life-safety outbound traffi c, Captain. however designated, above routine Late in the evening of April 14, messages. Similarly, one can say the nearby S.S. California also that the Marconi company failed to tried to send an ice warning, but train at least some of its operators like the Mesaba’s, it was not pre- to think life-safety in evaluating in- fi xed with MSG for Captain Smith’s coming traffi c, whatever its prefi x. 9 attention. Phillips, working hard With complete confi dence, one to get delayed passenger traffic can say that the Marconi company out to Cape Race, cut it off: “Keep and the White Star Line bear the out, I’m working Cape Race.”8 So blame for overwhelming the sec- the single wireless operator on the ond most important man on the California, after a long day, shut ship that night, the Marconi wire- down and went to sleep. less operator on duty, with a fl ood One can only speculate as to of the routine in which not even whether the Mesaba’s message, icebergs were noticed. or the California’s message, had See Figure 5 for an image of either reached Captain Smith, the fi rst CQD-SOS message Phil- would have slowed him down. lips sent out a few hours later, just With more confi dence, however, before midnight, as copied on the Figure 5. CQD sent from the Titanic at 11:55 and copied on the Birma. Volume 25, 2012 257 Titanic - Emergency Communications S.S. Birma.10 wireless messages derive from the Titanic Signals Archive Collection, Westbury, Wiltshire ENDNOTES (UK), reproduced as postcards by 1 The best recent explanation of Marine Art Posters (Hull, UK) in the Titanic disaster is: Unseen its Series 8. This one is number Titanic in National Geographic, 6 of 16. The Norris message April 2012 at page 78 and cover is number 3. The Caronia ice (“Titanic What Really Happened”), warning “MSG” is number 4 and including Hampton Sides, “The the Caronia personal message to lights are fi nally on” at page 86, the Titanic’s master is number 2. I “Titanic The Crash Scene” at obtained these cards at the Titanic page 99, and James Cameron, Museum in Cobh, Ireland (near “Ghostwalking in Titanic” at page Cork), which as “Queenstown” 100. Cameron reports: “We before Irish independence, was even imaged the transformer they the Titanic’s last port of call before [Phillips and Bride] had repaired its first and last North Atlantic just the night before the sinking. voyage. The Posters company has Acting against guidelines, the two not responded to an inquiry about wireless geeks managed to restore further availability. the set to full power – an act that 6 One of the most perceptive may have saved 712 lives, since analyses of the wireless operations without this power they might that night is that of David Barlow, not have reached the rescue ship G3PLE, (the Curator of the Lizard Carpathia with their historic Point, Cornwall, U.K. Marconi SOS.” (Page 109). Cameron also Wireless station) in an excerpt saw that “the wireless apparatus from in his book: SOS – A Titanic survives” and that the positions of Misconception. The excerpt, the knife switches revealed that the Wireless Communications and operators had cut the power as they the Titanic Disaster, appears left the fl ooding radio room. in the Poldhu Amateur Radio 2 See Richard Patton, Commander, Club GB2GM Newsletter, March USCGR (Ret.), Radio’s Role in 2012 at page 7. He notes that the the Titanic Disaster, QST, April Titanic received at least seven ice 2012, page 30. See also the Titanic warnings. He reproduces the CQD website: www.rf.ro that displays – SOS message from the Titanic excellent graphics and summarizes copied by the S.S. Birma just much of the story of related wireless before midnight (fi gure 5 here).