Abstract
THE terrible loss of life on account of the disaster to the Titanic has directed emphatic attention to various aspects of the employment of wireless telegraphy in times of crisis at sea. The point which is at the moment attracting most of the public attention is that of the erroneous messages, or alleged messages, which appeared in the newspapers in the day or two following the disaster. Possibly some of these messages may have been invented by imaginative reporters, but others seem to have been perversions of messages which had actually passed between vessels at sea, but which were not concerned with the accident. This kind of mistake is well illustrated by the transformation undergone by a message containing the words, “Am towing oil-tank to Halifax.” Such mistakes as these are possible in all kinds of telegraphy, but they probably arose in the present case at the hands of some of the amateur wireless telegraphists that swarm on the American coast. Some of these amateurs, it is. widely believed, may indeed have originated of set purpose a number of the early reassuring messages, and it is clear that the possibility of rigging the insurance market by such messages affords motive enough for their concoction. It is most unlikely that intelligence of this character should have been sent in irresponsible moments by operators on liners, for the operators are under the direct control of the captains, the service discipline is strict, and every message has to be recorded.
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The Loss of the “Titanic” . Nature 89, 201–202 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/089201b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/089201b0