[CW] How was message routing done?

[George]

To send a commercial msg to someone on a ship, you just had to know the ship name or hull number and originate the message with WU. They would follow a similar procedure & either route it to the Navy (for someone on a USS or USNS ship) or to whichever of their commercial stations was handling that ship’s traffic.  BTW, there were routing codes usually attached to the message to ensure it got to the correct ship and ultimately the addressee.
George N0GM

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 23, 2019, at 4:15 PM, Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> 
>   Thank you. I think commercial messaging must have been somewhat different. What I understand now is For messages _from_ ships at sea the message would be sent from the station to its traffic office and then via Western Union wire to the final recipient. Or else message could be delivered by telephone (by WU or the radio company?) or by mail. The lists in some of the old books show wire cost per word which depended on the distance of the recipient from the radio station.
>    This is the other way, how would I have gone about originating a message to someone aboard a ship?
> 
>> On 4/23/2019 2:02 PM, George wrote:
>> For USNS (Navy chartered) ships, the ship would send a message to whichever communication station they thought would be the one they would be copying messages from, say NDT for Japan. That communication station would then receive their messages & hold them. For USS ships (Navy), all Communication Stations in the area would broadcast messages for all ships in the area (encrypted, of course).
>> George N0GM (former RM)
> 
> -- 
> Richard Knoppow
> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> WB6KBL
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