Imagine being wrenched from your bed to find your wireless cabin half destroyed by another liner. In thick freezing fog you struggle to your post and to your place in maritime history. Wireless operator Jack Binns stayed at his post on the liner The Republic for 36 hours after it had been rammed by another liner even though his ship was sinking. It's thought to be the first time wireless was used to save lives at sea. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2009/01/23/history_morsecode_feature.shtml
Fascinating - I think it was only in 1900 that Marconi had sent his first wireless signal across the Atlantic. And it was a year after the Republic incident that Dr Crippen was arrested after a wireless signal was sent by the Captain of the ship he was on - the first time a criminal was caught by the use of wireless.
