– but wasn’t believed
ON a cold evening on April 15, 1912 the “unsinkable” Titanic hit an iceberg.
The catastrophic crash saw the huge liner sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking with it 1,503 lives.
The ship collided with the iceberg just after midnight as it steamed towards New York – tearing a massive hole in its hull which caused freezing cold water to flood in.
As the disaster unfolded, the radio crew on board scrambled to send out a mayday signal.
While the dramatic and tragic scenes played out on the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles away a one-legged radio enthusiast in Blackwood was sat at his desk listening in.
Artie Moore was one of the first people in the world to hear the terrifying message and although the story of the Titanic is known the world over, his role has been mostly lost to history.
Born in 1887, Artie lived in a 17thcentury water mill at Gelli Groes.
As a young boy in the same mill, Artie was involved in an accident that meant his leg had to be amputated.
During his recovery, he became increasingly fascinated by the emerging science of radio.
He built a number of devices at his home, and even made use of two wooden lampposts to help pick up radio signals.
He quickly became wellknown in the area for his contraptions and in
1911 he appeared on the front page of the
Daily Sketch after he intercepted the Italian government’s declaration of war on Libya.
But it was his interception of the Titanic’s distress signal that propelled Artie to fame and fortune.
On the evening that the huge ship crashed into the iceberg, 24-year-old Artie picked up the faint mayday call in Morse code.
The first message read: “CQD Titanic 41.44N 50.24W”.
CQD was the distress signal that ships used before SOS, which had only just been invented.
As the ship became more and more desperate, it sent out: “CQD CQD SOS de MGY [the code for the Titanic] Position 41.44N 50.24W. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. Sinking.”
The messages kept coming in quick succession.
The next read: “We are putting the passengers off in small boats”. Another said: “Women and children in boats, cannot last much longer – Come as quickly as possible; our engine-room is filling up to the boilers.”
The final message said: “SOS SOS CQD CQD Titanic. We are sinking fast. Passengers are being put into boats. Titanic.”
After the messages stopped, Artie rushed to the local police station to relay the news.
With the Titanic being widely regarded as unsinkable and one of the most advanced ships ever built, the police laughed in his face.
Radio enthusiast Kevin Dawson,