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SOS is a really versatile distress call. You can shout it; you can tap it out in Morse code; you can honk it on a horn; you can signal it with flashes of light; you can spell it out on the beach with debris from your wrecked ship.
Explaining where SOS came from and what it means are maritime archivist Christian Ostersehlte from the German Maritime Museum, and Paul Tyreman from PK Porthcurno, the Museum of Global Telecommunications.
There are a couple of category B swears in this episode.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Another relevant Allusionist episode is Technobabble - so many acronyms/backronyms!
And in Answer Me This episode 377 I explain Morse code and how a personal tragedy compelled the artist Samuel Morse to develop telecommunications.
Marconi himself was supposed to have travelled on the Titanic.
About Frederick Mockford, coiner of ‘Mayday’ - and the Nato phonetic alphabet??
This episode reminded me of when I visited the Johnson Geo Centre in St John’s, Newfoundland, which was the closest town to where the Titanic sank and thus has a Titanic exhibition. Way back in the early days of the Allusionist, we learned about museum text panels and how they’re supposed to be not overtly judgemental. NOT THESE ONES!
This museum has clearly not forgiven the Titanic staff.
Also, “Be British”. Be…cold?
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
wabbit, adjective, Scottish: exhausted or slightly unwell.
- Origin C19: of unknown origin.
CREDITS:
Christian Ostersehlte is a maritime archivist in the German Maritime Museum, the National Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, and also the historical archivist of a German shipyard group
Paul Tyreman is the learning facilitator for science at PK Porthcurno, the Museum of Global Telecommunications at Porthcurno. Visit the museum at pkporthcurno.com.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with Erin Wade.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and hear more of his composition on the new science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist, and in return you’ll get behind the scenes glimpses into the making of this podcast!
