Richard wrote: "I'm going to guess either Mr. Marconi, himself, Jack Binns, or W.G. Balfour."
Hi, Richard: Sorry, I meant to get back to you earlier on that and got tied up. Anyway, "Give that man a third of a cigar!" (Hey, one out of 3 ain't bad!) :^)
The radio man in question is none other than the illustrious John Robinson ("Jack") Binns, himself renowned as the Marconi operator aboard the stricken Republic. The full quote can be found on page 1035 of the U.S. Hearings (Day 13).
I was fairly tickled when I stumbled upon that bizarre coincidence a while back. It seems our Mister Binns was sort of an "expert witness for all seasons" -- newspaper man, seasoned Marconi operator (personally involved in a maritime distress situation), key figure in the attempts to gather early information from the
Carpathia, *and* a guru on Californian's wireless set, to boot. (Now that *is* a small world!)
I thought JJ Astor was probably the subject of your own quote, but only vaguely recalled seeing that somewhere. So who the righteous "man of the cloth" might be eluded me entirely.
Dave: Gotta love that 4-liner above. It's a "salty" rhyme, if ever I heard one.
One really far afield now, though some will doubtless know it immediately: What Titanic passenger once dedicated a published work "To all those ... who labor through necessity and not caprice"? And what was the actual publication? [Note: The winner will receive a fabulous FREE link to the online version -- a graphic reproduction of the original work.) ;^)
Cheers,
John