Word: sos
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Voice code for the standard telegraphic SOS, "Mayday" (from the French m'aidez -help me) was first approved for international use in radiotelephony at the International Radiotelegraphic Convention in Washington...
...ship was. abandoned in perfect order. In 35 minutes the Skaubryn was roaring from end to end like an acetylene torch, but every passenger and seaman was in the safety of lifeboats on the calm sea. As long as they were able, the two radio operators sent out SOS signals. The ship's master, Captain Alf Faeste, was the last man off, sliding down a rope with the log book. There was only one casualty: a German businessman died in his lifeboat of a heart attack...
About the question with which your Feb. 4 Zen article ended:* I would bat my eyelids three times fast, three slow, and three times fast-the international distress signal (SOS). Then, when the friend had pulled me up, I would let him feel the back of my hand...
DAMAGE. Flashed to the third-floor city room, the SOS was the first any Manhattan newspaper knew of the collision between the Italian liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish American Line's Stockholm (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). The Times stopped its presses, hustled to cover the story. In the next 36 hours it proved once again what newsmen have known ever since the sinking of the S. S. Titanic* in April 1912: the sedate, sometimes plodding New York Times can get up and gallop like a quarter horse on a fast-breaking disaster...
...answer the SOS, the Maritime Board has just started a program which it hopes will replace at least 60 worn-out vessels each year and boost shipyard employment from a low of 20,000 to a steady 36,000 men. The board first-year goal, as approved by Congress for fiscal 1955; a total outlay of $401 million in both Government subsidies and private funds to build, modernize, and repair 99 ships in U.S. shipyards. In its overall purpose, the new program is little different from the many ship-subsidy programs that the Government has launched since the basic Merchant...