Flares/Morse Lamp

More lives could have been saved if the RMS Titanic’s flares signaled the accurate meaning. According to the article above, Titanic’s flare guns fired white flares, which stands for White Star Line (Oceanic Steam Navigation Company). However, the red flare is the emergency standard, meaning that the ship is in distress. Other ships, including the Californian, whose captain was Captain Lord, saw the flares that the Titanic signaled, but unfortunately didn’t acknowledge it as a distress call. The Californian may have been nearby the Titanic at one point, which may have been about six miles. The Californian did eventually get to the Titanic, but not in time, so if the Titanic did fire the red flare, perhaps more of the 1,503 people who died, could have been saved by the Californian or other nearby ships.

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The RMS Titanic had a Morse code transcript used to communicate to other ships. Before its treatment as a distress/ SOS signal, the messages sent were very similar to normal text messages. These memo’s were about the glory of the Titanic, basically boasting about a very enjoyable experience. Susanne Webber was the person that was in charge of decoding these sophisticated messages. First class passengers directed these messages to their friends, and wireless operators sent memorandum's to other wireless operators to nearby ships. Soon this Morse code communication was used to inform each other about safety complications. While the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic occurred, updates were being made about the destruction of the cruise ship. From reports about the iceberg and the engine room, people contacted their family member’s about the incident as well. Jack Phillips did most of the work. He sent all the passenger’s messages about the collision, and made all the contacts to the Marconi radio. CQD was a common distress signal used.

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While the tragic fate of the RMS Titanic was unfolding, Fourth Officer Boxhall was in charge of letting everyone around this sinking cruise be aware of this. He was in charge of the rocket distress signals. During this collision Rowe brought many distress rockets with him to the bridge, as it was an order by Boxhall. Once an hour from the collision passed, flares started being shot up in the air. Each were launched minutes apart. Approximately 8-12 distress rockets were launched, and the Californian states they saw eight. All of these flares were seen as white ones. One key part these SOS flares didn’t succeed was because they were not ejected in correct succession. Succession means order of performing a certain or specific action. Also the Californian was 10 miles away and was blocked by an ice field. Perhaps if they got the rockets earlier more lives could be saved.

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In this article you will figure out the purpose of flares, what type of colors there are, and what they represent. There are many colors for flares which all have a usage for ships. The color red is the color of distress. This is used for emergency situations, where you would set off a red flare is you need immediate help. The red flare is better to use at night because it is more visible and easier to see. The orange flare has the same use as the red flare but the orange flare is for the day time. Ships use the color white as a signal to warn other ships of your position in order to avoid collisions. They are also useful for illuminating the water at night in a man-overboard situation. A parachute flare would be ideal for this use.

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