Evening star., 1936-11-29

But such is not the picture Of .
real, honest-to-goodness ships radio
man-Charles L. Pagan, . veteran
of "a years at sea. He's one Of the
old-timers among the "sparks"-as
ships radio operators are termed In
marine idiom. He's the dean of the
radio officers employed by the Grace
Line, in whose ships he has served
for 20 years.
RUT, strange as 1t may seem to the
moyie-goer and the fiction reader,
Sparks" Pagan has never sent or
received an S o S. Seated in his
familiar shack" aboard the Santa
Clara as the ship lay in New York
Harbor, Mr.. Pagan, a rotund, gray
ing man with an Irish twinkle in his
eyes, tells you why:
II was never in q ship that was
in distress. That's why I never had
to send out an s o S. And, what's
still more rare, in my 20 years at
sea with the Grace Line. 1 never re-
ceived call asking our ship to come
to the aid of another vessel In distress.
MY most exciting experiences have
been the times when I transmitted
answers to calls asking aid for human
beings. not ships, in distress. That is,
when I sent out messages from our
ships doctor, prescribing for the
treatment of seamen injured or
stricken i'll on other vessels which
did not have doctors aboard"
IN FACT, Sparks" Fagan's only per-
sonal experience with an s o S was
indirect. That came during the
World War, when he temporarily
served as radio officer aboard the
Atlantic transport Siberia, carrying
munitions across the Atlantic. On
that occasion he merely relayed an
S 0 S from a British ship that sus-
pected the proximity of submarines
and wanted a British destroyer for
protection.
Pagan is an extremely modest and
retiring individual. despite the fact
that he is not only esteemed as one
of the most expert of marine radio
telegraphists, but as a noted amateur
ornithologist who has collected more
than 400 species of unusual birds who
flock to the Santa Clara as the ship
sails her route from New York through
the Panama Canal to the west coast
of South America. But Pagan never
theless takes pride in the traditional
title of Sparks" For he considers
his calling to occupy a distinguished
rank among human pursuits in mod
ern society. He knows radio thor
oughly and he admires it warmly.
He believes radio communication at
sea has taken enormous strides OF
progress in the past 20 years and has
thus commensurately benefited the
worlds shipping and travel industry.
THE high development Of radio
science and radio communica-
ton facilities" he declared, has been
a tremendous factor in the great re-
duction of maritime disasters that
has taken place in the past genera
tion
In the old days, If ship lost her
rudder, ran onto a reef or had a fire
at sea, her master often had to take
the desperate chance of being sighted
if he hoped to get help. Today, in
case OF accident at sea, the ships ra-
dio sends out q cali and usually gets
the help of other vessels within a few
hours"
In the relative short space of two
decades, Pagan pointed out, the
science OF devising fool-proof and
accident proof marine radio apparatus
has registered remarkable advances.
Every ships radio is checked by in
spectors of the Federal Communica-
tions Commission before the vessel
takes to the sea from an American
port. Ships radios have loud speak
ers, like the sets in private homes,
but the operators always use ear
phones when listening in to signals.