The Myrick Wireless Interpretation Centre at Cape Race is a replica of the original Marconi Marine Radio Station built at the same location in 1904 at the invitation of the Canadian Government. It is named for the Myrick family who lived and worked at Cape Race from 1874 until 2007, serving as light keepers, fog alarm operators, telegraphers and wireless operators.

The original Marconi Marine Radio Station had a range of 300-400 miles, and used the call letters MCE. The original building burned down twice—probably due to sparks from the generators—but it was quickly rebuilt both times. The replica building now houses artifacts and exhibits that interpret the history of early telegraphy and wireless radio in Newfoundland. The Myrick Centre is also the home of the Irish Loop Amateur Radio Club—call sign VO1 MCE.

The history of telegraphy and wireless radio in Newfoundland is a fascinating story of cutting edge technology in the early 20th century, the grit and determination of the early entrepreneurs in telecommunications and the dedication and professionalism of the men and women who worked as telegraphers and radio operators. The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most memorable moments in Cape Race history. The Marconi station at the Cape was the first land station to answer Titanic’s distress call and helped to coordinate the rescue effort.

For hours of operation call 709 438 1100.

Newfoundland at the Cutting Edge of Technology

In 1837, an electrical telegraph was developed and patented in the United States by Samuel F. B. Morse. His assistant, Alfred Vail, developed a code for signaling the alphabet with a series of short and long electrical impulses that became known as Morse Code.

In 1851, English engineer Frederick Gisborne formed The Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company. He started work on a telegraph line from St. John's to Cape Ray, with branch lines to Trepassey and other towns, but his company failed due to financial troubles. American businessman Cyrus Field became involved in 1854. He was a real entrepreneur and could see that if a trans-Atlantic cable was laid underwater between Newfoundland and Europe, the telegraph line across Newfoundland would become a real moneymaker. He and Gisborne formed the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, which was awarded a 50-year monopoly on all telegraphy development in Newfoundland. They completed the telegraph line to Cape Ray in the fall of 1856 and a month later, successfully laid the underwater cable from Cape Ray to Aspy Bay in Nova Scotia.

Field found British partners, arranged financial backing on both sides of the Atlantic and completed the first trans-Atlantic cable between Ireland and Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1858. The excitement was tremendous, but short-lived—the cable failed after only 27 days. Cyrus Field was eager to start again, but the outbreak of the American Civil War delayed his success until 1866.

Map of the 1858 Atlantic Cable route
Original author unknown, produced by Howe's Adventures & Achievements of Americans and published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 21, 1858

“Via Cape Race”
Meanwhile, the New York Associated Press (AP) found a profitable way to use the telegraph connection to Newfoundland. With its new lighthouse, Cape Race was a landfall beacon for ships from Europe travelling to US and Canadian ports. The AP paid shipping companies to bring the latest news from Europe in watertight canisters and drop them over the side as they steamed past Cape Race. The company kept a steam launch, a boat crew and lookouts at the Cape. When a ship had news to transfer she would signal with flags or flares and the lookout would alert the boat crew. The news canisters were brought ashore to a telegraph operator who would put the news “on the wire” to New York—four days before the ship arrived in port! It was a great business for Associated Press, and the “Via Cape Race” byline soon became well-known all over North America, including St. John’s.

“Breaking” news came to North America via Cape Race until July, 1866, when the trans-Atlantic cable project was successfully completed by the SS Great Eastern operating for Cyrus Field’s latest company, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company.

At the turn of the century, a young Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi (Goo-yell-mo Mar-ko-ni) was experimenting with wireless telegraphy. He was also an entrepreneur who intended to compete with Cyrus Field’s trans-Atlantic cable company. In December 1901, Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless message from Cornwall, England using a kite to lift his antenna high over Signal Hill in St. John's. Some competitors doubted his claim, and it was not very well documented, but there’s no doubt that he was at the leading edge of the new wireless technology. His early attempts to set up a wireless station in Newfoundland were blocked by Cyrus Field’s company. He continued his work in Nova Scotia at the invitation of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and sent the first wireless message across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia in 1902.

Titanic

RMS Titanic
Photographer unknown
Via Wikipedia from http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=3817223&extra=page%3D1

Imagine the suspense at Cape Race on the night of April 14, 1912, with the wireless operators listening hard, waiting for a signal from the magnificent new ocean liner RMS Titanic steaming towards them from England. Finally she came into range and Walter Gray, the senior officer at Cape Race had a Morse Code “conversation” with Jack Phillips, the Chief Operator on the Titanic, hearing his friend’s news about how grand the ship was.

Later in the evening, Phillips was sending passengers’ messages to Cape Race for relay to New York City. A nearby ship, the Californian, sent him an iceberg warning. The signal came in really loud because they were so close, and probably hurt Phillips’s ears, because he responded “Shut up, shut up, I’m working Cape Race.” That sounds quite rude, but the radio operators had their own slang and codes, like people on MSN or CB radio do today. They had received a warning earlier, and had already posted an iceberg watch. The operator on Californian went off-duty to get some sleep, so when Titanic hit an iceberg only fifteen minutes later, Phillips was unable to contact them for help.

After receiving a long string of boring passengers’ messages, Cape Race operator James Godwin was amazed to hear Titanic sending CQD, CQD—a distress call!! He ran to fetch his senior officer, Walter Gray, who took over and relayed the news to other ships and land locations, looking for rescuers. Another Cape Race operator, Robert Hunston, started to log the messages—not just their own but between Titanic and other ships in the area. In the end, only one ship—the Carpathian— made it in time to save 705 passengers. Over 1500 died because there weren’t enough lifeboats and the water was so cold. As the disaster unfolded, Gray sent reports to the ship’s owners in New York, South Hampton and Liverpool, to a New York newspaper, and to the Marconi Company in Montreal, all in accordance with his standing orders.

The Titanic’s radio operators were Marconi employees like the men at Cape Race, and CQD was the Marconi Company code for a distress call. They also sent out the newer SOS signal. Both Titanic operators kept trying to get help even after they were released from duty by the captain. In an interview later, Walter Gray was full of praise for how well his friend had handled the emergency, saying that there “wasn’t a tremor” as Phillips signalled that Titanic was sinking by the head and that they were putting women and children off in lifeboats. Phillips was lost that night, but his second officer, Harold Bride, survived to tell what had happened.

By 2 am, a flood of messages started to come in to Cape Race from newspapers and others wanting to know what was going on. When relatives heard that survivors were being picked up in lifeboats, they would send messages for their loved one to every ship in the area. Thousands of messages passed through Cape Race and every one had to be processed and forwarded according to the rules. Gray and his staff worked without rest for almost four days. Following his orders from the Marconi Company, Gray declined to answer requests for information after the initial emergency phase was over and that nearly put him in hot water with the Governor of Newfoundland. Gray suggested that Governor Williams contact Marconi’s head office in Montreal for detailed information. That didn’t please the governor, but although he threatened to make trouble for Gray, The Marconi Company stood by their man and nothing more came of it.

After the sinking of the Titanic, all ocean-going passenger vessels were required to be fitted with wireless radio equipment. More operators were hired to give day-and-night coverage on larger ships and an auto-alarm was developed for smaller ships so they wouldn’t miss distress signals. The universal SOS was adopted and replaced the Marconi code CQD. Stations were no longer identified as private enterprises by their call signs as of 1913. This is when Cape Race’s call sign changed from M (for Marconi)CE to VCE. The V stood for Canada; each country had its own letter. Marconi started up the Marconi radio schools so that operators would be better trained and prepared to handle emergencies.

Go to: http://users.senet.com.au/~gittins/radio.html to read background information about the young telegraphers on board Titanic and the ships around her the night of the sinking.

Titanic sinking
a photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art by Willy Stöwer who died on 31st May 1931.