Description
CQD Medal, awarded to Officers and Crew of the S.S. Republic and Florida for their gallantry in the rescue of 1700 on 24th January 1909.
The reverse die reads:
“FROM THE SALOON PASSENGERS OF THE R.M.S. BALTIC AND R.M.S. REPUBLIC
To the Officers and Crews of the S.S. Republic, Baltic and Florida
FOR GALLANTRY
Commemorating the rescue of over 1700 Souls Jan 24th 1909.”
The rescue of the nearly 1700 passengers and crew from the Republic and the Florida in the Baltic was the defining moment in wireless rescue history. During a dense fog the Republic was rammed by the Italian ship S.S. Florida. Marconi Wireless Operator Jack Binns, who gained the nickname “C.Q.D. Binns” of the Republic sent out the first “CQD” (The Florida had no wireless communication). As a result the Baltic came to the rescue, after hours searching for them.
This event led the maritime industry to equip as many ships as possible with wireless in case of another incident, it was the very first use in the UK of the new distress signal.
The CQD distress signal would soon after become the “SOS” signal.
When the Republic sank the Hero of the ship, who was later known as “CQD Binns” saved them by sending out the “CQD” signal, it was commonly recognised to mean “Come Quick Danger”, it seems that Marconi had accidentally created a convenient Backronym as according to the people who created the signal, the letters themselves meant nothing in particular.
CQD is a backronym which is commonly believed to mean “Come Quick, Danger” or “Come Quick, Distress”, actually the original station code for an “All Stations” call to receive a message was the code “CQ” and the Marconi Operators later added the addition of a “D” to indicate Distress, so when a radio station received the morse code “CQD” it was a call to “All Stations Distress”.
Apparently at the First International Congress of Wireless Telegraphy back in 1903 they were “unable to come to a consensus” on a universal distress signal. Thus the Marconi Company took matters into their own hands creating the “CQD” signal in a circular sent out in early 1904, meaning that if you were to make a “CQ” call to All Stations, the addition of a D would mean that there was distress.
It was replaced by SOS a few years later as that was easier to understand for Radio Operators, as in poor weather the station might receive a “CQ” call and not realise a ship was in danger as they might not catch the last part.
When the Titanic was sinking, due to typical British stubborness who refused to widely adapt a new standard, they were still sending out the old CQD Signal, before then interspersing the new “SOS” signal as well.
