What was the distress call before sos

The wireless telegraphers used Morse Code to send messages. By there were many trans-Atlantic British ships equipped with wireless communications. The wireless operators came from the ranks of railroad and postal telegraphers. At the second Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference , the subject of a danger signal was again addressed. Considerable discussion ensued and finally SOS was adopted.

The thinking was that three dots, three dashes and three dots could not be misinterpreted. It was to be sent together as one string. There is no special signification in the letter themselves, and it is entirely incorrect to put full stops between them [the letters]. Stations hearing this distress call were to immediately cease handling traffic until the emergency was over and were likewise bound to answer the distress signal.

Also, every ship was instructed to maintain a three-minute radio silence at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour, when operators should listen for distress calls. In , the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea SOLAS was signed, requiring among other safety measures all ships carrying more than 50 passengers to have a radio on board.

Flood victims, for example, have written it on the rooves of their homes to signal rescue helicopters, and the well-known letters can even be seen quite frequently on banners in protest marches for various causes. But on the very night before the regulations were to change, a ship in distress used the old signal. The MV Oak was carrying timber from Canada to the British port of Liverpool when it lost engine power and its cargo shifted dangerously in a storm.

This is Oak. Position 53 16 N, 24 59 W. Stop engine. The signal was formally introduced on 1 July SOS was chosen because it could not be misinterpreted as being a message for anything else. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue. Tree years later the Titanic used it to signal the sink of the ship. The SOS was actually brought into use in , but it's adoption by maritime stations was very slow. Animals Whales eat three times more than previously thought.

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