SHIP IN DISTRESS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 56, 7 March 1930, Page 17

SHIP IN DISTRESS

HOW S.O.S. WAS ANSWERED

LISTENER'S PROMPTITUDE

A most extraordinary story was told to a representative of "The Daily Telegraph" recently of how assistance was brought tqa ship in peril at sea. : Briefly the-facts are: ' "A Kussian vessel storm-tossed in the Channel was sending out an 5.0.5., but the call was not being heeded. '. . . ' ' ■ It was intercepted by a 'wireless listener as tie sat before the, study fire in his Surrey home. By telephoning to the North Foreland radio station the listener was instrumental in causing ship and crew to be saved. " , A little while.before reception of the S.O.S. the listener's wireless aerial was blown, down^ and he climbed 50ft to refix it. . "COMB'AND HELP." The modest hero of the story is Mr. CyrlL E. Baron, a marketing consultant, with offices at 10, Adelphi terrace. Strand, who was listening-in at his home in Weybridge. He has received official recognition of his services—a notification from the Post Office that, as a measure of appreciation of a timely and enterprising act, the charge for the tele- • phone call to the North Foreland ■ station will ; not be debited to his account. .- : "During one of the worst of the December storms," Mr. Baron said, as he told a representative, of "The Daily Telegraph " the story of his timely intervention, "the wind damaged my wireless aerial. I climbed the 50ft fir tree to which it is attached to refis it. That night, following my usual custom when I find the 8.8.C. programme uninteresting, I sat down' to listen to the ships in the Channel. "Before the war I was a wireiess operator at sea, and I .am naturally specially interested in ships' messages. "I tuned into'6oo'metres, the ships' commercial wavelength, and within a few minutes, amid the buzz of Morse traffic, I was surprised to hear that call which no captain will refuse to answer —the S.O.S. But nobody was answering it. It was obvious to me that the ship was'a Russian, and in unusual English I caught words which I interpreted: 'Please, everybody, come and help.' "There was also a continual call for the North Foreland radio station. As the traffic for ships in the Channel at the time was as heavy as I had.ever known it, I concluded that the North Foroland station was being jammed. LIFE OR DEATH CALL. "The situation was dramatic; There was I, sitting snugly in my armchair in Surrey, listening to a life or death •call, and I had to decide what to do. I resolved to risk a' telephone call to the radio station, with the possibility of an official reprimand for my interfering temerity. "I,asked the local telephone operatot to get me through at once to tho North Foreland station, explaining that I was an ex-wireless officer and had an urgent^ message. Within three minutes I was --'connected with* tho officer in. charge, told him who I was and what 1 had heard. . . . ■ "By tho time-I had got back to my study," said Mr. Baron, "and had put on the headphones I discovered that NoTth Foreland had secured quiet by sending out the Q.B.T. message to ships in the vicinity, which means 'suspend working.' 'By intercepting messages from the station T then heard them talking to the (ship, which was tho s.s. Jakov Sverdlov, and tejling them that three tugs were on their way to thenassistance. . '■■'■• "Later I learned that the vessel was being towed to safety, and I had the pleasure of hearing the Sverdlpv's •Sparks asking that traffic through the ether should be resumed. "A-: quarter of an hour later,' said Mi. Baron, "my aerial ' was blown down." ■ POST OFFICE THANKS. • ■ As an interesting sequel to the story Mr. Baron received from the G.P.0., not the reprimand he feared, but the following letter:—- '"A ili" is ' reported to the PostmasterGeneral that .on Bth December you informed the North Foreland coast station by telephone that wireless distress signals from tho s.s. Jakov Sverdlov were not receiving.attention. I ami therefore, to thank you for the action which, you took to bring this matter" to notice, and to express the-Postmaster-GeneraVs'appreciation of your prompti-. tude.,'■'.-'; !■ .-.■■. ■ ■■ . ■■'■ ■„ Owing to > previous suspensions _ o± commercial: signalling on account of distress working, intense interference was being experienced at North Foreland at'the time when the distrpsa. signals from the s.s. Jakov Sverdlov were emitted, and, in order to make1 communication practicable, it had -been found necessary to utilise the"direct tional receiver at the coast station. The effect of this procedure was temporarily to minimise the strength of the signals from the direction of the Jakov Sverd-; lov. The , final paragraph, which gives practical expression to the departmental appreciation, reads: "I an)"to add that the charge for the telephone call to the North Foreland station will not, of course, be debited in your telephone account." Mr. Baron, whose expert knowledge of wireless stood, him in good stead, was on wireless work throughout tho war. He was responsible for the erection of several w ;Teless stations in the East, one of them at Akaba, in Egypt, Colonel Lawrence's headquarters.