Titanic

[j.sabourn]

#70 Didn’t have the surname of Lung and first name Davis did he ? Cheers JWS.

[Red Lead Ted]

Another bit of useless but educational fact regarding Titanic, Her original call sign and this may differ slightly its from memory not google, Was M.Y.G. White star changed it to C.Q.D. Before her maiden voyage, If my memory serves me correct it was a call sign taken from the USS Yale. Terry. p.s. Some believe this was done as C.Q.D. Can be abbreviated............... Come Quickly i am in Distress, But i very much doubt it.

[vic mcclymont]

CQD (come quickly I am in distress) was the distress signal adopted by Marconi. The call sig was not internationally accepted.
Vic

[j.sabourn]

#72... RLT. As regards Call signs .during most of our days here , these were in 4 letter groups, British ships beginning with G , this later was extended to begin in some cases with Z, this I assume to encompass the large smount of ships under the British Registry. The one that seems to stick in my mind was GRDF and I have taken to assume this was the call sign of the Avonmoor the first ship I sailed on. Is there any quick and easy way of confirming this as would be nice to know I wasn’t going senile and starting with loss of memory. As this was some 65 years ago may prove to myself am not in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. Today you could almost get the list of British Registered ships on the back of a postage stamp. Your CQD signal sounds feasible but without the use of a code book can’t remember that one. However CQ was used to address all ships and shore stations which I do remember. D as a single hoist was and I am only guessiing as certain flags I do get a lapse of memory , was keep clear of me I am manouvering with difficulty. What year SOS came into being haven’t got a clue. Most people think it stands for Save Our Souls. It’s use was the convenience of 3 dots and 3 dashes. Easy to send in Morse by lamp also. The word Mayday comes from a French word ask any Frenchman and is their contribution to the Rescue Services , when using the phonetic and you hear the word Roger spoken this will either be by a Texan or a
Police officer who stayed up late watching a new series of Dragnet the previous night, the correct word. To represent R is Romeo and not Roger. Signals was a subject on its own at the
BOT or MOT or DTI. Don’t. Think the coastguard bother with most of it today. A lot of people lost their written and orals over it as didn’t pass signals in the required time frame of 6 months. Semaphore was being able to send and receive at 8 words a minute, and Morse code at 6 words a minute. You could double that for naval signallers .A yeoman of signals in the RN was the real professional. Cheers JWS

[Fouro]

#70 Didn’t have the surname of Lung and first name Davis did he ? Cheers JWS.

Submarine Escape. A WW2 Survival Tale. Click on to the html to read about it.

Submarine escape: A WWII survival tale from Kefalonia - BBC News

Fouro.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Interesting, thanks Fouro. K.

[robpage]

Ocean Liner Gazette Fall 2001 - R.M.S TITANIC = MGY & OTHER RADIO ARCANA


The call sign for the Titanic was previous to country letters and was MGY therefore the distress message sent was CQD MGY

[Ivan Cloherty]

In the eras 40's to 80's British ship call signs comprised four letters beginning with either 'G' or 'M' don't know when 'Z' was introduced

[j.sabourn]

Think the Z may be be my memory again Ivan and maybe some of the British protectorate ships I was on the likes of Bahamas Registry. Know I have been on a couple beginning wth Z somewhere. Or maybe just dreamed it last night did have a larger amount of red wine, judging by the empty bottle this morning. I only drink the stuff because they reckon it’s good for you . There again it may of been the Russian ship was on, or could even have been dreaming of my favourite tv star Zebedee in the magic roundabout. It would of been after 1980 sometime as life then took a turn for the better or worse whichever way you look at it. Cheers JWS.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Probably a Z in there somewhere John, as with an excess of 190 countries the 26 letters of the alphabet was soon exhausted some signal letters are now preceded by one or two numerals