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boys were as happy as I had ever seen them, and I

felt I was doing the right thing. Oh! How wrong

I was!

SOS

The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m.
on April 14. At 12:15 a.m. on April 15, Captain

Smith ordered one of the ship’s o"cers to

calculate the exact position of the ship. Then

he had the ship’s radio operator tap out the

#rst distress signal in Morse code. By the time
the ship sank, 70 messages were sent back and

forth between the Titanic and other ships in the

area. Ships of several nationalities started to
come to the aid of the Titanic. But the ship that

was the closest to the Titanic, the SS Californian,

did not receive the distress messages. Its radio

operator was asleep.

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