A news item, referring to the wreck of the _Republic_, and the hearing
of the first wireless news of the disaster by the operator at the
station on Nantucket Island, says:
Imagine a lonely island in the middle of winter, thereon a
lonely Marconi station, therein a lonely Marconi operator,
with his telephones glued to his head watching the break of
day, thinking of his past and future, listening for any sign
of life in his telephones. Imagine that man suddenly startled
with a faint, very faint, call from a ship using the recognized
distress signal, giving her position and calling for help.
Slowly, all too slowly, came the cry for urgent aid, each call
seemingly taking an hour’s valuable time, yet in truth but a
fraction of a second. Will he never sign? Who can it be? At last
came the recognized code letters of the White Star _Republic_,
and again the call for aid. With this information Operator
Irwin, of the Marconi force at the station here, who was on duty
at the time, immediately got the wires hot, knowing the revenue
cutter _Acushnet_ to be lying at Wood’s Hole, and within one
minute the captain was informed that his calls had been heard
and aid was being rushed to him.
The soul attent to hear the world’s signals that call for help should
be ready to serve and save the lost and needy.
(1859)