Who said morse code is dead - Man found clinging to ocean beacon uses morse to signal ship

[Frogmogman]

Good question. At what point do you "know" a foreign language? For some, it might be when you can speak it indistinguishably from a native. But there's a functional view, that you can speak a language adequately when you can communicate your desired message. As long as I can order two beers, then maybe I "know" the language sufficient to my needs?

There's two great things about morse:
- just about everybody knows SOS. So if all you want to say is "Help!" then yes, you know enough morse
- you can signal with little or no technology, improvising with what you've got. I'm reminded of Jeremiah Denton (look him up if you don't know the story)

True. Back in the antediluvian days of RDF, we were all probably a bit sharper on our Morse recognition (I'll never forget the stricken expression on the face of a Merchant navy friend when he asked Bajansailor if there was an RDF on board. Martin promptly demonstrated that he could get a bearing on Castries radio by tuning in his transistor radio and rotating it to find the null)

When I was a midshipman in the University Royal Naval Unit, I had my morse up to about 9 words a minute; for reference the required standard for a telegrapher was 20 words a minute (for plain text). That was nearly 40 years ago. I can still pretty well remember the letters, but do have to search around a bit in the old memory banks.

 

[Sandy]

He meanwhile signals a passing ship using morse code SOS by covering and exposing the light on the beacon!

I wonder if he knows the morse for, "I need tea", I suspect not. I know I don't.

 

[laika]

I wonder if he knows the morse for, "I need tea", I suspect not. I know I don't.

See post #18

 

[Stemar]

I rather think that if I need morse, tea would be pretty low on my list of priorities.

I could ask for a beer in almost any country I'm likely to visit, in most of them because nearly everyone speaks better English than I do. That'll do me.

 

[laika]

I rather think that if I need morse, tea would be pretty low on my list of priorities.

See post #18