The sun., 1909-01-24
First Word Of the Wreck
at SIaSCOnSet al
4:I0 A. N.
OPERATOR STUCK TO POST
All Day Msagre Messages Told
of the Sinking Ship and
Her Passengers.

The can OF &c. q. D." That summons All
ships within TOO Miles the First
News OF Disaster Then Came Word
That the Baltic Had started for the
ReiIef-French Liner Ia Lorraine
Adds Her Message and the Cuna rider
Lucanla soon Joins In the Hunt
Messages From the Injured Vessel
Grow Slowly Fainter and Fainter
A man sat in a room in a little shack
down on a sand spit that points out into
the Atlantic Ocean beyond the village Of
Siascopset on the south shore Of Nan
tucket Island. He fingered key and the
flashes OF blue light that jumped from
the hammock Of wires high over his head
outside streaked the blackness Of the win
dowpane. This mana. II. Gilman is
his name-was talking with the ships
beyond where the waves piled up on the
sand spit. That was his business.
Suddenly at 40 A. NJ. through the
telephone receiver harness clamped
around his head and over his ears there
sounded an interrupting chatter. 1t was
this
"Ta-a tat ta-a tat-tat tat ta-a tat-ta-a
tat tat"
That meant these three letters. &C Q.
D. In the Continental Morse code used
by ships and Marconi stations these
three letters mean what three mines mean
to Chief Croker Of the city's Fire Depart
ment; what the collision signal means on
battleship. Those three letters are
absolutely imperative.
When this operator caught the sense Of
those three letters instinctively he reached
for his key and sent for zoo miles on every
side of him. landwar1 and seward. a
MESA ge that travelled at the rate Of 1s0, 900
miles a second. The message read
&C. Q. d, Here Sc. G.
This means Distress signal received
at Siasconset wireless station. Go ahead. '
Then in minute came another message
to the operator at Siasconset 1t was:
I'VE were struck by an unknown
boat; engine room filed; passengers all
safe can stay aHoat; latitude ioI7,
longitude 20. Republic.
THE PIRsT CALL FOR HELP.
As soon as the operator had put down
the final word he reached for his key
again. The regulations OF the Marcon
Wireless Telegraph Company OF America
are that whenever an operator shall re-
ceive the G. Q. n. signal Of a ship in dis
tress he shall Immediately upon ascer-
tanning her locality and the extent OF
her damage send out TO every ship and
station that may be in the zone of 200
miles radius about his station word Of
her distress, even though ships may
have caught themselves the original
message from the crippled ship to the
shore.
So Gilman prefaced his message with
the c. O. d. of alarm, then carefully re-
peated the message that had come to
him from the Republic. That done he
sat back and waited.
This all occurred in less time than il
takes TO read these paragraphs. 1t was
the first word from the White Star liner,
Mediterranean bound and twenty five
miles south Of Nantucket lightship. Only
the time that was occupied by the swift
movements OF the operators finger at
Siasconset station held the electric mes
sage on it's fight from ship to shore and
from shore to other ships.
There was a ship at sea that was filling
with water. Aboard her an operator
named Binns had sat and tapped key
AT the dictation of the captain. More
than forty miles away Ginman, the opera
tor at Siasconset on the sandspit had
heard and with the greater force Of the
batteries away in his shack he had sent
the message out again.
The operator at Siasconset did not have
long to wait before messages from the
shoreward side and from ships began to
drum into his ears. First came messages
from harleston navy yard, Newport,
Boston. Vineyard Haven and Woods Hole,
all Of which static ms had caught the alarm
sent out from Siasoonset. Woods Hole