by Leighton Smart

Created on: November 01, 2008

I read the article from MadDreamer on Artie Moore with great interest indeed.

I actually wrote the story of Artie Moore in 2004 entitled: 'Arthur Moore - The Forgotten Spark' after much research and it was published in Practical Wireless magazine in July of 2004. In 2005 I published it in booklet form, and I later added it to the website of the Blackwood Amateur Radio Society (see:

http://www.gw6gw.co.uk/Artie_Moore/Artie%20Moore.pdf and also in abbreviated form on Wikipedia (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Moore.

Arthur Moore - The Forgotten Spark

In the early hours of April the 15th 1912, in the loft of the 17th century Gelligroes Mill, a small whitewashed building nestling alongside a babbling stream at the bottom of a sleepy hollow near Blackwood in Wales, a young wireless experimenter using crude radio apparatus received a faint but terrifying signal in Morse Code: "CQD CQD SOS de MGY Position 41.44N 50.24W. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. Sinking.We are putting the women off in the boats.."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

As time ticked slowly into the small hours, the experimenter continued to copy out the Morse signals he was receiving, probably not quite believing what he was actually hearing: "We are putting the passengers off in small boats" "Women and children in boats, cannot last much longer.." Then came the final, desperate, signal: "Come as quickly as possible old man; our engine-room is filling up to the boilers".

The signals were transmitted from the ill-fated RMS Titanic, and the name of the young wireless experimenter was Arthur (known as Artie') <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Moore, of Pontllanfraith.

Artie breathlessly relayed the dreadful news to the locals and to the local constabulary, who didn't believe the incredible news that the unsinkable' Titanic has floundered, and were indeed extremely sceptical as to whether Artie had received the messages at all.

Two days later however, both Artie and the locals received confirmation through the local and national Welsh press that it was indeed true, and that over 1,500 poor souls had tragically perished in the icy waters of the north Atlantic.

The newspapers also confirmed as Artie had claimed that the new SOS' distress signal had been used by the Titanic's radio operators along with the usual CQD' signal, thus proving that Artie had indeed received

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