What were DE Bristow's Two Mystery Ships

[Tracy Smith]

If Phillips had lived, I wonder if he would have been called on the carpet for his dismissal of both the Frankfurt's operator and when the Californian tried to warn him of being stopped in ice and Phillips blew him off with the "I am working Cape Race" message?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Tracy, interesting question. Since the wireless guys were being lionised as heros at the time, I rather doubt that Phillips would have been subjected to too close an examination had he lived. The competition between the seperate wireless companys was decidedly cut throat back then.

Of course, I could be wrong too.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Tracy,

Easy one first...if Californian had a navigational message (e.g., an ice report) to pass, then Evans should have prefixed his message as a Master's Service Gram. Phillips would not have dismissed it under those circumstances; in fact, he would have been required by regulation to copy the message and send it to the Captain for signature proof of acknowledgement. Evans chose to preface his message in unofficial conversational tones, and Phillips was not inclined at that time to accept for what he appears to have assumed to be idle chatter.

About the Frankfurt, it would have been interesting to hear Phillips' version of the exchange. Any fallout would depend totally on what Phillips revealed on the stand.

I would assume that Marconi would have sequestered both Bride and Phillips for a period of time before the Senate Inquiry, either aboard Carpathia or in a hotel nearby. The only goal for such a closed-door session that I can safely assume would have been to ensure that all three told the same story to Senator Smith. Outside of that, though, including whether or not Marconi would have allowed the full truth to come out under examination, would be unsupportable speculation.

Parks

 

[George Behe]

Parks wrote:

>Easy one first...if Californian had a >navigational message (e.g., an ice report) to >pass, then
>Evans should have prefixed his message as a >Master's Service Gram.
>Evans
>chose to preface his message in unofficial >conversational tones,

Hi, Parks!

Unless I'm mistaken, though, Evans had no authority to compose an MSG on his own; Captain Lord would have been required to write down the exact text of the MSG, sign it and give it to Evans for transmission to Captain Smith before Evans would be authorized to prefix the message with "MSG." That didn't happen, though -- Lord just casually told Evans to tell Titanic that she was in the ice, and Evans dutifully carried out the captain's order.

IMO, laxness in wireless protocol that night cannot legitimately be laid at Evans' door.

All my best,

George

 

[Parks Stephenson]

George,

You're right about the MSG protocol. I'm not trying to saddle Evans with the entire responsibility for the ice report not making it through to Smith. The laxity in wireless protocol that night underscored the need for international agreement on a set of standard operating procedures. What happened to Titanic also served as a warning to ship captains to give a bit more attention to their wireless and to understand wireless procedures.

I do blame Evans for violating one unwritten rule of telegraphy, which still holds true for radiotelephony today....listen before you speak. MWL may not have been able to hear the transmissions from MCE, but she would have heard the occasional "K" (at least) or outgoing messages (at most) from MGY, had she listened for a while before barging in. And even if Evans still didn't know what was going on, he still should have queried with a short "CQ MGY de MWL" before rattling off with his longer, more familiar greeting.

Another unwritten rule of telephony, which was inherited from telegraphy, is that you re-introduce yourself after about an hour of not talking to one another. So, just because Phillips exchanged a short message with MWL at 1930 does not justify MWL coming back at 2300 with "OM." You're entirely correct that Evans did not violate any letter of the regulations that night when he tried to call up Titanic. You're also correct when you assert that Evans had no authority to send an MSG on his own. However, Evans violated a couple of rules of telegraphy etiquette and deserved the "DDD" he received from Phillips. Not that he learned the lesson...MWL would continue to irritate others the next day as she repeatedly interrupted the transmissions between ships looking for information about Titanic.

Does that make Evans a villian? No, not really. We evaluate his actions with the benefit of hindsight. Certainly, Evans could not foresee the impact his message would have on the coming tragedy; in fact, determining the weight of any particular (non-paid) message was not his job. Would another operator have handled it differently? Maybe, maybe not. That's the point...there was not enough standardisation in wireless operating procedures in 1912. It took Titanic to force nations to ratify international radiotelegraphic procedures originally outlined in the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1904, and revised and expanded in 1906. The London Conference of June 1912, would approve "important regulations to secure uniformity of practice in Wireless Telegraphic Services" and these would be further expanded by the Safety Of Life At Sea convention of 1914. But I digress...you know all this already.

So, who was at fault for MWL's ice message not being transmitted to MGY? Going strictly by the letter of existing regulations, the answer would have to be "nobody." Captain Lord made a decision not to compose an MSG, that was his perogative. Evans never did carry out his Captain's order...after receiving the "DDD," he made no further attempts to raise MGY; instead, he shut down for the night. He listened for a while and heard no break in the MGY-MCE traffic (why couldn't he do that before?), but did that excuse him from carrying out his Captain's wishes? However, he wasn't violating any Marconi regulations in deciding to close his station, so officially, he did nothing wrong. And of course, Phillips was not required to accept any message lacking a CQD, SOS or MSG prefix when busy with ADVISELUM traffic. So, the missed Californian message was really a missed opportunity, not a breach in existing regulations.

What Titanic made clear is that telegraphic regulations had to be expanded, clearly defined and ratified by the international community. After a few years (the United States was one of the last maritime nations to ratify the articles of the convention), that eventually happened.

Parks

 

[George Behe]

Hi, Parks!

I was merely replying to your specific point that Evans "should have prefixed his message as a Master's Service Gram...." Your statement seemed to imply that Evans was empowered to do so (he wasn't) and that his *failure* to do so was responsible for his message being dismissed by Phillips (it wasn't.) Having said that, though, you're absolutely correct about the necessity for 'tightening up' the regulations that governed 1912 wireless procedures.

>So, just because Phillips
>exchanged a short message with MWL at 1930 does not justify >MWL coming back at 2300 with "OM."

Interestingly, Phillips himself seems to have used "OM" in at least one of his CQD messages. It doesn't seem to me like the operators themselves regarded the presence of "OM" as a big deal one way or the other.

>So, who was at fault for MWL's ice message not >being transmitted to MGY?

It was the actual *receipt* of Captain Lord's casual ice message that caused Phillips to tell Evans to keep out. (If I recall correctly, Lord didn't even bother to give Evans Californian's own position for transmission to the Titanic -- which certainly underlines Lord's casual attitude toward the whole matter.)

As Walter Lord said, "A certain amount of slackness...."

All my best,

George

 

[Parks Stephenson]

What are you saying, George? I see you correcting me on this point or that turn of phrase, but I'm confused about your overall point. Are you saying that Lord is responsible for the failure of Californian's ice report to reach Smith?

Parks

 

[Tracy Smith]

My original point was to point out a general attitude of impatient arrogance in Phillips that night, not to determine who was at fault, be it Phillips, Evans, or Lord, or a combination of all three or nobody, in re in the Californian ice message being bungled.

Despite the fact that the Californian message should have been prefixed with MSG, if Phillips had been a little more patient and less "wired", perhaps the Californian message would have made it to Captain Smith, MSG or not.

 

[George Behe]

Parks wrote:

>Are you saying that Lord is responsible for the >failure of
>Californian's ice report to reach Smith?

Hi, Parks!

I'm saying that Captain Lord's ice message would have had a *far* better chance of reaching Captain Smith if Lord had been on the ball that night and composed a proper, official MSG for transmission to the Titanic. IMO Phillips would have had a much harder time brushing off an MSG than he did the 'casual' message that he actually received. (That's not saying that Lord's MSG would have saved the Titanic, of course, but who knows?)

All my best,

George

 

[Parks Stephenson]

George,

I agree completely with everything you said in your last post. I often wonder how many times we might find ourselves in agreement if we didn't talk past one another so much?

Parks

 

[Maureen Zottoli]

Hi there George,
I am very willing to admit to not being an expert in this. But I do have some experience in some forms of coimmunciations.

Sorry about this, but I just wanted to point out that I do not believe that in message protocol that a message was technically "received" by Titanic when Evans sent Lord's message to her because Phillips cut off the message before it was "completely sent". Receipt of message meaning that a message was completely sent meant it was acknowledged by the receiving system. That message was never "officially" acknowledged by Phillips as being "received" so technically by protocols of that day, I believe that Parks point about Evans not following through with Lord's orders is valid in that regard. But also that there were no regulations governing this.

Physically, a signal may have come across that is true and it is true that this is what set off things, but the full message was not allowed to continue to its completion and therefore was not "received." If i had been there I would have tried to send it again. (Soup Stirrer that I am.)

When you work with this stuff day after day, you learn to just write it but not take in what it says unless special coding appears, otherwise you just "tune it out". I believe that the marconi operators were like that in rushed times.

Have at me George! but be gentle, I'm old and frail....and...let me think....oh, forgetful.
Maureen.

 

[George Behe]

Parks wrote:

>I often wonder how many times we
>might find ourselves in agreement if we didn't >talk past one another so much?

Hi, Parks!

Who knows? It might even turn out that we're identical twins who were separated at birth.

Maureen wrote:

>Sorry about this, but I just wanted to point out >that I do not believe that in message protocol >that
>a message was technically "received" by Titanic >when Evans sent Lord's message to her
>because Phillips cut off the message before it >was "completely sent".

Hi, Maureen!

Well, that isn't quite true. (Almost, but not quite.) Evans said he finished sending his message to Phillips and then Phillips immediately told him to keep out.

>Receipt of message
>meaning that a message was completely sent meant >it was acknowledged by the receiving
>system.

Your absolutely correct.

>That message was never "officially" >acknowledged >by Phillips as being "received" so
>technically by protocols of that day, I believe >that Parks point about Evans not following >through
>with Lord's orders is valid in that regard.

You and Parks are correct. I guess Evans found himself in a dilemma; he transmitted everything to Phillips that Captain Lord had *told* him to transmit, and he knew that Phillips had *heard* his message (which, of course, isn't the same thing as saying that Phillips had *listened* to his message.) Phillips had then told Evans to "keep out." What was Evans to do? Should he "keep out" as requested or should he *formally* repeat the uninformative transmission telling Titanic that Californian was stopped in the ice in an unknown location?

An interesting situation.

All my best,

George

 

[Maureen Zottoli]

Wow, thanks George. I think that if Evans had been a real soup stirrer, he'd have re-sent the message with.."Hey you silly cornball, You shut up and look at that iceberg staring at you fella! Now acknowledge my important message or I'll tell your mum you throw your socks on the floor."

Of course, I still would not have placed the MSG ahead of it...but...what can I say, I'm a slow learner.
G'day kind sir and thanks for your reply.
Maureen.