The Nick of Time

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 41, 24 April 1930, Page 5

The Nick of Time

[THAT fireside wireless listeners are often able to "pick up" the S.O.S. call of a ship in distress we all know. A still stranger occurrence comes from Weybridge, England, when so providentially a message was heard over the air, and so nearly was not, Mr. Cyril Baron’s aerial had been blown down from a fir-tree in his garden. He might have left it down, but he decided to climb the tree and fix it. That night, therefore, he was able to resume his favourite pastime of listening to ships in the Channel. He tuned to 600 metres to catch them, and presently caught the 8.0.8. call from a Russian ship, storm-tossed, crying for help, in rather odd English: "Please, everybody come and help." To his astonishment, he realised that -the call was not being answered. Being a man of action, he rushed to the telephone and got on to the North Foreland Station with the news, and shortly had the gratification of hearing that tugs were being sent to the rescue. The radio station had not heard because messages were being jammed. A quarter of an hour later Mr. Cyril Baron’s wireless aerial was again blown down!