SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, UNITED STATES SENATE
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10:30 o'clock a.m.
Present: Senators Smith (Chairman), Newlands, and Fletcher.
TESTIMONY OF GUGLIELMO MARCONI ­Continued
SENATOR SMITH: You were sworn a day or two ago, Mr. Marconi. I asked you, when you were on the stand before, whether you had sent any messages to the Carpathia during her voyage from the scene of this catastrophe to New York, and I recall your reply. Would you like to correct it?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Please do so.
MR. MARCONI: I said that I had not sent any message, as far as I could remember, to the Carpathia, during her voyage to New York with the survivors of the Titanic. On my return to New York, after having testified, I found that I had sent one message to the Carpathia.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you that message?
MR. MARCONI: I immediately wrote a letter to you, Senator, stating the fact and inclosing the message.
SENATOR SMITH: Is that the message [handing Mr. Marconi a telegram]?
MR. MARCONI: This is the message, and a confirmation of the Siasconset Station.
SENATOR SMITH: Please read the message, giving the date, hour, to whom addressed, and all other contents.
MR. MARCONI: It was transmitted on April 18, 1912, at 1 a.m., to Cowden, Marconi Station, Siasconset, Mass:
Send following immediately; advise us delivery stop.
Which means full stop.
Wire news dispatch immediately to Siasconset or to Navy boats. If this impossible, ask captain give reason why no news allowed to be transmitted. Guglielmo Marconi
Would you like me to give the station signs also?
SENATOR SMITH: Yes; please give the telegram in full.
MR. MARCONI: It is as follows:
April 18/12 No.2 Station sent to: M.Y. No. 2. Time sent: 1 a.m.
Cowden, Marconi Station:
Send following immediately; advise us delivery stop. Wire news dispatches immediately to Siasconset or to Navy boats. If this impossible, ask captain give reason why no news allowed to be transmitted. Guglielmo Marconi
The Siasconset station sent to my office in New York a return of what it actually transmitted to the Carpathia. This is the message:
44/3 Siasconset Station, April 18, 1912
Words D.H. (which means "deadhead"). Service instructions Nyk (New York). Station sent to: M.P.A. Time sent: 3:15 a By whom sent: JC.
To Opr. S.S. MPA
Wire news dispatches immediately to Siasconset or to Navy boats. If this impossible, ask captain give reason why no news allowed to be transmitted. Guglielmo Marconi
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Marconi, what did "J.C." mean on that message?
MR. MARCONI: It should be the initial of the operator who sent the message.
SENATOR SMITH: In your New York office?
MR. MARCONI: No; in the Siasconset office; Cowden, I should say. It was this man Cowden.
SENATOR SMITH: Yes. Do you know who he was?
MR. MARCONI: No; I do not know who he was.
SENATOR SMITH: By name?
MR. MARCONI: I understand that he was the operator.
SENATOR SMITH: "S.S.M.P.A." was the cipher of the Carpathia?
MR. MARCONI: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: And "S.S.: meant steamship?
MR. MARCONI: Steamship; yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: April 18 was the date on which the Carpathia arrived in New York?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir. Of course, I should call you attention to the fact that it was 1 o'clock in the morning.
SENATOR SMITH: The times were 1 o'clock in the morning and 3:15?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you receive any reply?
MR. MARCONI: No, sir; I did not.
SENATOR SMITH: Did your office receive any reply?
MR. MARCONI: I do not think so.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you make any inquiry about it.
MR. MARCONI: I made inquiry. I was told nothing was received.
SENATOR SMITH: Who told you?
MR. MARCONI: Mr. Bottomley, and, I believe, Mr. Sammis. But I say, certainly, Mr. Bottomley.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you talked to the operator about it?
MR. MARCONI: I beg pardon, Senator; which operator?
SENATOR SMITH: Have you talked with the operator on the Carpathia about this?
MR. MARCONI: No; I have not. I have talked to Bride, who was the operator of the Titanic?
SENATOR SMITH: He was the operator of the Titanic?
MR. MARCONI: He was the operator of the Titanic and was transferred to the Carpathia.
SENATOR SMITH: What did Bride say about it?
MR. MARCONI: If I remember correctly ­ he is here to testify himself.
SENATOR SMITH: I know he is here­­
MR. MARCONI: [interrupting]. But if I remember correctly, he did see something of that. The message was received.
SENATOR SMITH: But no reply was sent to you?
MR. MARCONI: No reply was sent. At least no reply was received, I should say.
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Marconi, do you know how the Chester and the Salem are equipped with wireless?
MR. MARCONI: I do not.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you know whether the Chester and the Salem are so equipped that they can, with accuracy, communicate with other wireless stations?
MR. MARCONI: I know they can communicate with accuracy; but as to how they communicate, or how far, or what power they have, I am totally ignorant.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you know anything about their operators?
MR. MARCONI: No, sir; I do not.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you any reason to believe their operators are not well qualified for their work?
MR. MARCONI: I have no reason myself to believe that, except from things I have heard from operators that have testified in this inquiry.
SENATOR SMITH: What have you heard?
MR. MARCONI: I heard that they worked slowly, or that they did not seem to be well acquainted with the continental Morse code.
SENATOR SMITH: What code did they use?
MR. MARCONI: I presume they used the Marconi, but I do not know.
SENATOR SMITH: Is there any serious difficulty in communication between your offices and the naval offices because of the difference in code?
MR. MARCONI: There would be if different codes were adhered to. It would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to communicate accurately.
SENATOR SMITH: What code do you use?
MR. MARCONI: We use the international Morse code, as used in Europe and Great Britain, and as specified or determined by the International Regulations on Wireless Telegraphy.
SENATOR SMITH: There does not seem to have been any difficulty in the Government boat Florida and various coast stations of the Government picking up these messages from the Carpathia?
MR. MARCONI: No; those stations did not appear to have any difficulty.
SENATOR SMITH: You desire the committee to understand that these two telegrams I just read are the only messages you communicated to the Carpathia on the day of her arrival in New York?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir; the only ones that I can trace, and the only ones that I remember.
SENATOR SMITH: And the message that is signed by Mr. Marconi at 9:33 p.m. on the 18th you do not identify?
MR. MARCONI: I do not identify it, and I state that it was absolutely unauthorized.
SENATOR SMITH: No matter who signed it?
MR. MARCONI: No matter who signed it; I state that I did not send it or authorize to be sent.
SENATOR SMITH: You desire the committee to understand that you disapprove both the language of those wireless messages and the unauthorized use of your name?
MR. MARCONI: Absolutely; I wish the committee to understand that clearly.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you anything further your care to say to the committee, Mr. Marconi, that will throw light on the purposes of this inquiry?
MR. MARCONI: I have something further to say. I should say I have some more messages which were sent by my company to various shore stations and to the Carpathia, and with your permission I will read them, with a view of getting them into the record. I should also ask you to allow me to say that the message which I sent to the Carpathia, to which you have already referred, proves, I think, quite conclusively that I had no intention of preventing United States Navy boats from receiving any information from the Carpathia. I was exceedingly surprised, as everybody else was at the time, that no news was coming through, and I was very much worried about it, and that day I did suggest that this message should be sent, and it was sent.
SENATOR SMITH: I want to ask you a straight, square question: Whether you infer that the failure of your operators to communicate with the Salem or the Chester or with your office, or to give this news of the trip of the Carpathia to New York to the public, was influenced in any manner by the hope of reward from the sale of exclusive information in the possession of wireless operators?
MR. MARCONI: My opinion is it was not influenced in any way, because I do not see that they had any reason to believe or to hope or to think that they were going to sell their story to anybody.
SENATOR SMITH: Was Mr. Binns one of your operators?
MR. MARCONI: Yes; he was.
SENATOR SMITH: Was he one of your operators when the Republic went down?
MR. MARCONI: He was.
SENATOR SMITH: Might not the fact that he received money for his story of that disaster have influenced these operators somewhat in their course?
MR. MARCONI: Frankly, I should say no.
SENATOR SMITH: [aside]. Officer, I want Mr. Cottam to step outside of that door while I am directing this inquiry to Mr. Marconi.
MR. MARCONI: Frankly, I should say not. Mr. Binns has receive a great deal of notoriety, and has benefited himself by the fact of his having been on board the Republic and on duty on that occasion. I might say that he is still employed in writing newspaper articles and magazine articles about operators, and the sea and ships, and things of that kind, which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual facts of the loss of the Republic. It seems to me that the public interest, or the newspaper interest, becomes so great when an individual finds himself placed in the position of these men, that whatever they say that has a public interest is paid for by these enterprising American journals.
SENATOR SMITH: I am going to ask you one further question. You, being the leading and most active figure in the field of wireless telegraphy, probably the most prominent man in the world in that work, and your offices being in every part of the world and on most of the ships of the sea, I ask you whether from the developments of this inquiry you do not feel that it is incumbent upon you to discourage that practice; indeed, to prevent it altogether, so far as you are able?
MR. MARCONI: Certainly; I am entirely in favor of discouraging the practice, and I naturally give very great weight to any opinion expressed by the chairman of this committee.
SENATOR SMITH: You have other telegrams there, and that we may not omit from the record anything that ought to be in it, I desire to ask you to read such as you ought to read and to file such as you consider it unnecessary to read.
MR. MARCONI: The first is a telegram dated April 15, 1912, transmitted at 10:26 a.m., addressed to "Marconi Station, Cape Race, Newfoundland"
Keep us advised Titanic. Marconi Co. of America.
Another message, also dated April 15, 1912. Time sent 8:46 a.m. Addressed, "Marconi Station, Camperdown, Nova Scotia."
Get us quick information condition Titanic. Answer this office. Inogram.
That is the code signature of the Marconi Co. of America. Another message, dated April 16, 1912, marked "Rush." This was sent at 8:06 a.m., and addressed to "Marconi Station, Camperdown, Nova Scotia."
Wire present position Carpathia and Olympic or where you think they are. Marconi Co.
SENATOR FLETCHER: You got no replies to either of those messages?
MR. MARCONI: I got no replies. Another message, dated, April 16, 1912, and marked "Rush," addressed to "Marconi Station, Camperdown, Nova Scotia,"
Franklin, White Star, desires know why they are not receiving messages from Carpathia.
SENATOR FLETCHER: What time was this?
MR. MARCONI: It was sent 3 p.m., April 16.
SENATOR SMITH: Tuesday?
MR. MARCONI: Tuesday. I will read the message again.
Franklin, White Star, desires know why they are not receiving messages from Carpathia. Rush answer. Marconi Co.
SENATOR SMITH: This is directed through your Nova Scotia station?
MR. MARCONI: Through the station at Camperdown, Nova Scotia.
SENATOR SMITH: From where was it sent.
MR. MARCONI: It was sent from New York. Another message is dated April 16, 1912. Time sent, 4 p.m. Addressed to "Marconi Station, Cape Race, Newfoundland."
Can you give us any information of the Californian; has she any passengers? Marconi Co.
Another message, dated April 16, 1912, addressed ":Marconi Station, Cape Race, Newfoundland."
Franklin, White Star Line, desires to know why they are not receiving messages from Carpathia. Rush answer. Marconi Co.
Another message, dated April 16, 1912. Time sent, 3 a.m. Addressed to "Cowden, Siasconset, Mass."
If you have any names of passengers on Carpathia rush here. Marconi Co.
SENATOR SMITH: I understand that you received no replies to these messages.
MR. MARCONI: I think there was a reply to some of them.
SENATOR SMITH: Have you any replies? If so, please read them in connection with the messages.
MR. MARCONI: I am sorry to say I have not the replies with me.
SENATOR SMITH: If there are replies to any of those messages I should like to have them.
MR. MARCONI: You will certainly have them. I will telegraph for them if they are not here. I have a few more to read, but some of them may be material, and I will ask your indulgence. Here is another message, dated April 16, 1912. Time sent 8:15 a.m. Addressed to "Marconi Station, Cape Race, Newfoundland."
Can't you inform us Virginian's position or whether she has any Titanic passengers. Rush. Marconi Co.
I wish to call the attention of the committee particularly to this message in view of the fact that it shows that the company had no intention of keeping the news exclusively for one paper. It was sent April 16, 6:50 p.m. Marconi Station, Siasconset, Mass.
Fitting tug with plain set sailing from Newport Wednesday morning chartered by New York American. Binns and Elenschneider aboard. Theirs will be all collect. Give them good attention. Call letters "JB." Stop. Wave will probably be short. Marconi Co.
The same message, the same words were sent to the Marconi Station at South Wellfleet, Mass; it is as follows:
Fitting tug with plain set sailing from Newport Wednesday morning chartered by New York American. Binns and Elenschneider aboard. Theirs will be all collect. Give them good attention. Call letters "JB." (advise Siasconset). Stop wave will probably be short. Marconi Co.
