Morse Code Equipment Turned Off Coast Guard Ends Century Of Monitoring Telegraph Distress Calls

The Coast Guard turned off its Morse code equipment after nearly a century of monitoring telegraph distress calls such as the Titanic’s 1912 collision with an iceberg.

The reason: “Modern technology,” says Jim Wren, a Coast Guard master chief who has been a radioman for 23 1/2 years. “We’ve just found more rapid and secure ways of communicating.”

But as the equipment was shut off Friday some veteran radiomen complained that satellites and automatic navigation beacons don’t have the same personal touch as the keyed “dots” and “dashes” the Coast Guard has sent and received since the early 1900s.

“It’s the human touch,” says Petty Officer Tony Turner, a 10-year radioman at the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Communications Station in Chesapeake. “It’s coming from a person’s hand, through the air, into another man’s ear - and there’s no language barrier.”

“I’m not real excited about this,” Wren said. “It’s a sad moment.”

A group of local radio operators gathered at the Chesapeake station to bid farewell to the familiar clicks and clacks that carried news about ocean storms, ship arrivals and departures and sea emergencies.

The station’s final Morse message was signed off at 7:19 p.m. EST.

Similar switchoffs occurred at the Coast Guard communications centers in Boston; Miami; New Orleans; San Francisco; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Kodiak, Alaska.

Coast Guard radio operators were considered a breed apart because they could send and receive the international language, named for telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, at 20 words a minute or more. Some of the faster ones, like Wren, achieved ratings up to 35 words a minute.

Cargo ships and other vessels still can use Morse code through commercial relay facilities that, in an emergency, will notify the Coast Guard, Montoya said.