Titanic Calling – Wireless Communications During the Great Disaster

I've been looking for some books on the the Titanic's wireless system and communications. I think I may have found a good book, that being Titanic Calling: Wireless Communications During the Great Disaster. Is this worth buying?

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From what I understand the information in the book is quite good. But the book being sold on Amazon now is reprint of lesser quality than the original print. From one of the reviewers...

"Beautifully printed and bound, BUT. Remember when you were a little guy and ordered something off a cereal box or a kid's TV show? It looked great in the pictures. You waited for weeks, and when it finally (!) came and you unwrapped it and were disappointed because it looked just like the picture BUT was incredibly TINY. That's the case with this book. It's a Hong Kong reprint, downsized, and printed on sheets about 7" x 7.5". If you just want to flip through the pages and look at the pictures you'll be OK, but if you're interested in the text, plan on reading it outdoors on a bright, cloudless day. Otherwise, look for the first edition (2012) and plan to spend $50 for a good used copy. They're around."

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I own the original 2012 Bodleian Library (Oxford) hardbound copy and it is indeed a an excellent quality publication edited by Michael Hughes & Katherine Bosworth. IMO the book is also well organized, illustrated and clearly presented in terms of times and nature of messages sent and received. It also touches upon the status of matitime wireless telegraphy leading up to the ill-fted voyage of the Titanic, the Marconi Contract with WSL and other relevant information.

IMO, a book certainly worth purchasing for one's Titanic collection.

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You can read all these messages at the archived version of Marconi Calling. The original site was closed down some time ago. Go to

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That is a very good site. Glad it got archived. Many of the links I've saved over the years I would guess about half now I get the 404 message...site not available. But most of the time I can find them thru the Wayback machine/internet archive. I often go to Parks radio page stored there which got removed from the net about 10 years or so ago. But the site you posted covers much more of the Marconi story that isn't just about Titanic.

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Great stuff!

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This is an interesting excerpt from that TITANIC RADIO PAGE:

Since the Titanic departed Southampton at around noon on Wednesday 10th April 1912, I make it over 110 hours (allowing of AST at the place of the ship's collision with the iceberg) and so am not quite certain where those '36 hours' came from.

But while on the subject, is there any record of those 250 odd messages sent and received before the accident? Also of professional (non-private) messages sent and received by the Titanic, even if considered of trivial significance? I assume the other parties would have had copies.

Also, what would be of interest and even some relevance would be messages related to ice in that part of the Atlantic Ocean that were exchanged between other ships not involving the Titanic directly but sent and received after the WSL liner left Queenstown on 11th April.

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The reprint is currently available direct from the Bodleian Library website for a reduced price of £3. (Plus shipping, of course) Titanic Calling

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