A small Atlantic Canadian town is claiming it was the first to hear the Titanic’s distress calls as the ship went down a century ago.
For more than an hour, the great ocean liner sent out cries for help, which other ships picked up.
But Joggins, Nova Scotia says 19-year-old Edmund Burke first received a call April 14 at 11:40 PM local time on his homemade wireless radio, which he used to listen to communication between ships.
“At last, my father is getting recognition,” says Burke’s son Leo.
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Edmund received a very static ‘SOS’ message that the Titanic was sinking. He posted the messages on a chalkboard outside his father’s theatre, much to everyone’s disbelief.
“They knew the Titanic was built and that it was unsinkable,” Leo says “and there’s no way it had sunk.”
The Maritimes Museum of Atlantic, located in Halifax, is planning to recreate the Morse code distress signals – with a modern twist – using Twitter.
Jenny Nodelman, the museum’s marketing and event officer, says, “We thought, this works well because wireless telegraphy, or Morse telegraphy, was really short and brief, and so is Twitter.”
The Titanic tweets will be sent in real time this upcoming weekend, coinciding with the anniversary of the ship’s sinking. Beginning Saturday at 11:55 PM NST (Newfoundland Standard Time), you can follow the hashtag #TitanicMMA. The museum is going by NST because of the ship’s location when it sank.
Pam Harrison, who is organizing the event, says she felt compelled to do something. “All my life I had heard about Mr. Burke’s creation and how we should do something about it.”
With files from Global National’s Ross Lord
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