Jack Binns: Hero of the high seas

By Helen Burchell
BBC Cambridgeshire

Jack Binns spent 18 hours sending distress signals from RMS Republic

A distress signal sent from a sinking ship 100 years ago resulted in more than 1,500 people being rescued.

Jack Binns was brought up in Peterborough and became one of Marconi's first radio operators.

When his ship, the RMS Republic, collided with another off America's east coast, he stayed alone at his post for 18 hours broadcasting the SOS.

He advised shipping companies that they should always employ two operators to ensure passenger safety at all times.

In the early hours of Saturday, 23 January, 1909, the RMS Republic and the SS Florida - a liner filled with refugees from a Sicilian earthquake - collided in treacherous waters off America's east coast.

Jack Binns was the lone radio operator on board the Republic, and immediately began to send out the recognised distress signal using Morse Code - CQD - CQ being a call for any ships or land-based radio operators, and the 'D' being the all-important signal for distress.

He remained at his post as the boat took on water, sending the continuous distress call which was picked up by the Siasconsett Station on Nantucket Island, about 60 miles away.

He worked tirelessly, in the biting cold - part of the radio cabin had been ripped away in the collision leaving it open to the elements - working with crude equipment running on emergency back-up batteries.

Binns after his rescue on board the White Star liner, The Baltic

As he transmitted the distress call, sailors from the Republic were frantically transferring the ship's passengers to the less-damaged Florida, a feat that took four hours in the small rowing boats on board both vessels.

Passengers and crew were eventually rescued by the White Star liner the Baltic, which was able to take all passengers on board and tow the Florida back to shore. The Republic, however, was too badly damaged and sank in 40 fathoms south of Nantucket.

Although there was no official inquiry into the accident, Binns, who was a highly-respected Marconi radio operator, advised the authorities that all ships should employ two operators, ensuring that communications were manned 24 hours a day. His suggestion was rejected.

Luck of Titanic proportions

Marconi went on to offer Jack the position of radio operator on the White Star's newest liner, Titanic. By this time, however, the young 'Marconiman' was engaged, and his American fiancee didn't want him to return to sea. And so, he refused the job and one day before the Titanic sank, Binns began work as a reporter for a New York newspaper.

Jack Binns received an official hero's welcome for the rescue effort

Although there were two radio operators on board Titanic on the fateful night in 1912 when it struck an iceberg, there was only one operator on the nearest potential rescue vessel - SS California - which at the time was only a few miles from the Titanic.

If two wireless operators had been on board, the Titanic's distress signal may well have been picked up sooner and many more of the passengers and crew may have survived.

Memories of his hometown

Although Binns spent much of his adult life in America and Canada (he became a pilot and radio operator trainer in the Canadian Air Force after his career as a journalist), he remained fond of the city where he grew up and was educated.

Before his death at the age of 75 in 1959, he shared his photographs and memoirs with his granddaughter, Virginia Lovelace, who lives in Ithaca, NY.

She told BBC Cambridgeshire: "He often talked with me about how much he loved Peterborough. He was particularly fond of the cathedral, and reminded me that Catherine of Aragon was buried there. He gained his appreciation of music listening to the choir.

"Many years ago I made a pilgrimage to the cathedral, and heard the Sunday evensong - I could understand what my grandfather meant - the choir moved me to tears. I have an old print of his that he cherished - it shows the cathedral as it might have looked in the 18th Century."

She continues: "His interest in all things electrical was piqued by two events: one was the installation of electric lights in a local department store in Peterborough; and the other was a demonstration of an Edison talking machine at the city's agricultural fair.

"As he noted: 'I remember putting the stethoscope-like tubing into my ears - after parting with the tremendous sum of sixpence for the privilege - and listening in amazement to a recitation of the Lord's Prayer.'"

Binns's heroism on show

One hundred years after his high-sea heroism, Jack Binns is now celebrated around the world by amateur radio operators, including those at clubs in Peterborough and the oldest Marconi operating station based at The Lizard in Cornwall.

His will also be featured in the second volume of Famous Peterborians, scheduled to be published in 2010.