[CW] Re: [NoGaQRP] Fwd: [BrassPounders] Interesting subject!!

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/11/06 5:01:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
k4kyv at hotmail.com writes:


> >But the Californian's receiver used a magnetic detector, which had to be 
> >wound up periodically, like
> >an old-time phonograph. The officer forgot to wind up the detector, and so 
> >heard nothing at all.
> >
> >73 de Jim, N2EY
> 
> 
> So that's what they were talking about in the late 50's version of 
> "Titanic," which has a scene in the radio room and one of the ops mentions 
> "winding up the detector."

You mean the film "A Night To Remember", based on the book of the same name.

Oddly enough, the book tells how the officer forgot to wind the detector, but 
the film shows a different scene.

> 
> That was probably the most authentic film version of the story.  

By far. No fictitious characters or made-up love stories. Typical British 
film,
made more dramatic by its understatement. 

Of course they didn't know the ship broke in two, and didn't have all the 
special effects of modern films, but the drama worked nonetheless.

There's one sequence where a first- or second-class man finds out what's 
really going on. He goes to his cabin and wakes his wife and children, dresses 
them and
sees them into a lifeboat - then steps back, since it was "women and children 
first". 

No shouts tears, or hysteria. He and his wife hold each others' glance as the 
boat is lowered out of sight.

The radio 
> 
> transmitter is shown in operation and actually sounds like a spark rig.  

The Morse is authentic, too - rare in a modern film, but after all, this 
wasn't a modern film.

Look for a very young David McCallum as one of the wireless ops at MGY


> There is a very chilling scene at the end, when the ship begins its final 
> plunge.  The people remaining on board scream in unison, sounding very much 
> like the reaction you hear in a packed stadium during a sports event when a 
> team scores a goal or a foul is called.  That's undoubtedly exactly what it 
> sounded like on the Titanic.
> 

Survivors' accounts agree on that.

Walter Lord, who wrote the book, had access to many of the survivors and 
interviewed as many as he could. 

>From what I have read, the Titanic disaster was almost forgotten for nearly 
40 years. While it was front-page news for a long time in 1912, the horror of 
WW1 caused it to fade into obscurity. Lord's book seems to have rekindled 
interest.

> 
> There was a network TV version of the story that came out shortly after the 
> recent Leorardo DiCaprio film, in which the Morse code signals in the radio 
> room sounded identical to modern CW on a receiver using a BFO.  I was 
> disappointed in the DeCaprio film, in that there was no scene actually 
> showing the transmitter in action.
> 

The biggest disappointment I had with the Cameron film is that the role of 
wireless, the Californian and the Carpathia was so downplayed. Californian is 
never mentioned, and Carpathia gets perhaps two scenes. 

I have read that a number of scenes were filmed in the wireless shack, but 
were edited out to reduce the running time. The radio room itself was 
painstakingly and recreated, yet is on screen for less than a minute.

Perhaps someday someone will make a film of the Carpathia's daring rush 
through the ice field...

73 de Jim, N2EY