First S.O.S.

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 50, 27 June 1930, Page 25

First S.O.S.

HE first radio operator to send out a call for help was Jack Binns of the Republic, which was rammed 1nd sunk on January 23, 1909, by the Florida. Binns’s call (it was a CQD at that time) was heard by several ships, which steamed to the aid of the doomed vessels but were unable to loeate them because of an extremely dense fog which blanketed everything. As this was years before the radio compass had been invented and per. fécted, the skippers had to play a very dangerous game of blind man’s buff. The sinking ship was finally located by the Baltic, by the discharge of bombs, Binns and the radio operator of the rescue ship calling to each other the exact times at which the bombs would be fired and the crews of each ship standing by to listen for the sound of the reports. The situation was growing desperate when the last bomb was about to be fired, but the explosion was heard by the keen ears of Binns and over three thousand lives were saved.