“SS Virginian to SS Californian – Titanic struck by berg Wants assistance urgently Ship sinking Passengers in boats His position Lat 41.6 Long 50.14”
At 11.40 p.m. (ship’s time) on 14 April, 1912, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and a hole estimated at some 300 feet in length was torn out of her side beneath the water line. The bulkheads failed to limit the flooding, and the vessel began to sink. The wireless operator on duty, Jack Phillips, was instructed to send out distress signals, which he began to do at 12.05 a.m.
Titanic Calling offers an unusual insight into the final hours of Titanic, a visceral, real time experience of the Morse code signals transmitted between Titanic and nearby vessels summoned to her relief, against the backdrop of a map of the Atlantic ocean showing the trajectory of the ships and the movement of dawn towards the site of the tragedy.
The app uses a morse code generator featuring custom-made sound synthesisers that enable viewers to hear as well as watch the messages being transmitted. Representations of each boat offers more information about the vessels.
Titanic Calling is an interactive, educational and accessible app, part historical documentation and part testament to the technology of wireless telegraphy. It draws on the Titanic collection in the Marconi Archives at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. It is published to accompany the book Titanic Calling: Wireless Communication during the Great Disaster, (Bodleian Library Publishing in association with Bernard Quaritch Ltd. Edited by Michael Hughes and Katherine Bosworth).