I thought this was fascinating and wanted to share. Painfully slow communications compared to today's standards. You can see the operator slowly becoming more panicked over time as the situation became more dire. The last message was sent a mere few minutes before the ship sank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRN2nP_9dA
shareUgh, I hate the immature millennial comments, especially the jokes about the Frankfurt.π They don't seem to realize the crew were Germans and had to translate all the messages. What's also clear from the transcript is that Titanic's signal was very weak and it seems the Frankfurt didn't receive most of the distress calls. Also, their question "What's the matter with you?" isn't even that strange compared to those coming from the other ships (What's the weather like? Are you heading towards us?), especially since the Titanic had been ignoring them. Philips was unnecessarily rude and clearly only wanted to communicate with certain ships. Unfortunately, his attitude had great consequences when dealing with the spiteful bunch of the Californian.
Otherwise, extremely eerie to read this. I wish it had included some more communication before and afterwards.
Yeah, Philips was a dick for sure. Like this comment:
Titanic: "We're sinking! Help!"
Frankfurt: "We are 100 miles off. what is the matter with you?
Titanic: "Fool. you fooL-"
Apparently, "fool" was considered hugely offensive back in 1912.
Also, I lol'd at this comment:
TITANIC: WE ARE SINKING!!! WE ARE SINKING!! REQUEST ASSISTANCE! PEOPLE ARE PANICKING AND DYING!!share
OLYMPIC: oh ok, How is the weather?
TITANIC: quite calm actually.
Well, I'm not going to tear the guy down. He stayed on the ship almost until the end still sending out messages. I very much appreciate him for that. But the guy did seem to have a chip on his shoulder that night. Apparently he had pulled an all-nighter the night before, which would explain why.
I get the weather question, though. They needed to know what the conditions were like before coming to their rescue. All legitimate questions considering the communication was vague and confusing at times.
Actually, asking about the weather was extremely logical if you have to rescue them.
Back them everybody used to be much more efficient and far less emotional, to the point that nowadays people find that answer laughable. Nowadays, what's considered correct is to give some kind of emotional support "we are with you" or something like that, instead of that cold "give us info about the weather".
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I guess what surprises people is that right after Titanic says that they're sinking and putting women into lifeboats, the Olympic (who already was on her way) randomly seems to ask what the weather was like when they hit the iceberg and Philips, who seemed to be in a panic previously, takes the time to politely answer that question, like exchanging pleasantries. But really, it's not a strange conversation and neither is the Frankfurt asking for an update after not hearing from the Titanic for a while.
sharethe telegraph operator must have understand english.
share"must have understand english"
Do you???π
This issue was discussed at the trial, so there was apparently enough reason not to automatically assume he had full command of the English language. The communication also became pretty informal at some point.
There was no trial. There were two inquiries. One of the changes was that ships would have wireless operators on the job 24 hours - some of them used to go to sleep. I don't recall language being an issue. The Frankfurt was too far away anyway.
shareUgh, semantics.π I'm referring to the questioning of Bride by the Americans during which they DID discuss a possible language barrier. Whatever understanding the German operator had of the English language, it must not have been so easy deciphering all the traffic that was going on at that moment.
Yes, they were too far away anyway, but I'm talking about the supposed stupidity of Frankfurt's operator. He obviously was not as dense as people are making him out to be.