by Pam Uher

Created on: January 18, 2008

Three dots - three dashes - three dots or ...-... = SOS, is today the International Morse Code transmission distress call. . The understanding that it means " Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Sailors" is a legend and historical 'mythatoid'. The development of various phrases to explicate or remember the distress code came much later. The development of the code by the Germans in 1905, came from their trying to create some standard regulations and protocols, concerning radio/telegraph communications. On April 1,1905 the German government issued some protocols that evolved from the first International Radiotelegraphic Conference, that had been held in Germany in 1903.

The 3 major protocols announced in 1903 were:

Ruhezeichen 6 dashes - meaning "cease-sending signal"
Suchzeichen 3 dots - 3 dashes ...- meaning "quest-signal" or ships to shore contact needed
Notzeichen 3 dots - 3 dashes - 3 dots meaning "distress-signal", which was to be repeated in set intervals until response received or transmission failed

In 1906 the International Radiotelegraphic Conference adopted the German protocols and added more details. The German distress signal became the international standard in 1908:
"ships in distress shall use the following signal ...-... repeating it at intervals". A real fact about the use of SOS, is that the USA did not officially adopt the International Distress Signal until 1912.

The letters SOS are not an acronym for anything when used as a distress signal! Now they may stand as an abbreviation for many other things:

SOS - Save Our Schools
SOS - Sack of Stuff
SOS - Si Opus Sit (Latin for if necessary)
SOS - Soap on Steel (S.O.S. soap pads)
SOS - Special Operations Squadron
SOS - Save our Survivors
SOS - Secular Societies for Sobriety
SOS - Self Opening Square (a paper bag)
SOS - Sprint Office Support
SOS - Strategic Operating System
SOS - Slop on a Shingle (armed forces slang for chipped beef on toast)
SOS - used as a MAYDAY logging entry started in 1927 by the military
SOS - a musical band (the letters supposed don't stand for anything)

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