CW at Sea Stories book

gm5bkc

gm5bkc

Star Member
Last week AE5X mentioned a book he has about maritime CW.  "SOS to the Rescue", written by Karl Baarslag, was published in 1935. 
It sounded really interesting and I found an ex-library copy, printed in 1945, for sale cheap on Alibris in the US.  I should have it in a few days.

Here is a link to the AE5X blog about the book:
https://ae5x.blogspot.com/2018/10/sos-to-rescue.html

I'll report back here after I read it :-)

Glenn AE0Q
 
I just got my copy of "SOS to the Rescue" by Karl Baarslag.  It's an interesting book, with a very detailed index at the back.  Printed in 1935, it has 18 B&W photos of ships and radio rooms and some of the Radio Officers.

The history of SOS is early in the book.  In 1903 the Italian Delegation at a conference in Berlin proposed SSSDDD as the distress signal.  In 1904 the Marconi Company issued an order that CQD be used.  In 1906 the Germans proposed SOE, and because E could be lost easily in noise or if "nervously transmitted" the International Convention decided on SOS, all run together.

Lots of detail, the author interviewed a lot of Radio Officers at the time to make an accurate historical record.

Glenn AE0Q
 
Still trying to locate a copy here.

So far I have only seen one copy for about $50.

I've been searching for a PDF version, but it looks like none have been scanned/uploaded.

I must not give up! ;D

73, Mark...
 
I found a site selling a reprint for $13 USD:

https://store.titanichistoricalsociety.org/product/sos-to-the-rescue/

A little more searching finds that the book was republished (maybe with some additions) under the title "Famous Sea Rescues".  Also, lots of libraries have it, so it may be possible to borrow a copy through interlibrary loan.

The book was originally written in German under the title "SOS zu Hilfe!" per worldcat.org (a meta-library catalog of sorts).  An English translation came out shortly afterwards.  I suspect it is out of copyright by now, in which case it is legitimate to post a scan.

It does sound like an interesting read.  I remember reading some similar stories in my early ham days, in a book that was mostly a biography of Guglielmo Marconi.  I don't remember the title though, unfortunately.
 
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