First distress call transmitted — CQD, later SOS
Phillips began sending CQD with the position worked up by Fourth Officer Boxhall: 41°46′N, 50°14′W. That position was some 13 nautical miles from where the wreck actually lies, an error that would frustrate searchers for seventy years. SOS was used later in the same sequence. The Carpathia answered; the Californian, her set closed down, did not.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- RMS Titanic · vessel · not located
- Marconi wireless telegraphy at sea · technology system · not located
- Jack Phillips (John George Phillips) · person · not located
- RMS Carpathia · vessel · not located
- Titanic wreck site · wreck site · International waters
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
Report on the Loss of the S.S. Titanic — British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry
Found the loss due to collision with an iceberg brought about by the excessive speed at which the ship was navigated; recorded the ship's particulars, the voyage timings, the ice messages received and the lifeboat complement; held that Titanic exceeded the Board of Trade requirement; found the Californian could have reached her; concluded (incorrectly) that the hull sank intact.
Wreck Commissioner's Court / Board of Trade, London · 1912-07-30 · Verified
Lord Mersey presiding; 36 sitting days, 97 witnesses
Testimony of Harold Bride, surviving junior wireless operator
Titanic's Marconi station used call sign MGY; the operators were Marconi company employees whose principal work was passenger telegram traffic; the distress signal was sent first as CQD and subsequently as SOS.
United States Senate inquiry into the loss of the Titanic · 1912-04 · Verified
Testimony of Harold Sydney Bride, hearings of the United States Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee, April-May 1912
Recorded on RMS Titanic
- Keel of yard number 401 laid at Harland and Wolff
- Titanic launched at Belfast
- Sea trials in Belfast Lough and delivery to White Star
- Maiden voyage departs Southampton
- Titanic anchors in Cherbourg roadstead
- Titanic sails from Cherbourg for Queenstown
- Titanic anchors off Roche's Point, Queenstown
- Titanic sails for New York — last sight of land
- Baltic's ice warning handed to Ismay and pocketed
- Mesaba reports heavy pack ice and bergs directly ahead
- Californian's ice message cut off — 'keep out, I am busy'
- Iceberg sighted and struck
- Andrews establishes the ship cannot float
- First distress call transmitted — CQD, later SOS
- First lifeboat lowered; first distress rocket fired
- Last boat launched from the davits
- Lights fail and the hull breaks in two
- Titanic founders
- Carpathia reaches the boats and begins the rescue
- Cable ship Mackay-Bennett sails from Halifax to recover the dead
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Wreck becomes eligible for UNESCO protection · 2012-04-15
- First human visits to the wreck · 1986-07
- Wreck located by the Argo camera sled · 1985-09-01
- International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London · 1914-01-20
- US Senate report submitted · 1912-05-28
- Carpathia lands the survivors at New York · 1912-04-18 21:30
- Cable ship Mackay-Bennett sails from Halifax to recover the dead · 1912-04-17
- Andrews establishes the ship cannot float · 1912-04-15 00:05