The "Herald" to Report Steamships at Sea By Using Marconi's Wireless Telegraph (1901)

New York Herald (Paris), June 9, 1901, Third Section, page 2:
THE "HERALD" TO REPORT STEAMSHIPS AT SEA BY USING MARCONI'S WIRELESS TELEGRAPH. layout map

WIRELESS SIGNALS                              WILL ANNOUNCE STEAMERS                              TO "HERALD" READERS. __________
Marconi System of Telegraphy, Through Nantucket Lightship, Forty-three Miles from Shore, Will Carry News to the "Herald," Gaining Thirteen Hours. __________
(From the NEW YORK HERALD.)     It will soon be possible to learn of the approach of an ocean steamer twelve or fourteen hours before she reaches the harbor of New York. Relatives and friends who wish to greet incoming passengers will have ample notice, and will be able to make their arrangements in comfort. Persons residing in Hartford, in Albany or in Washington can remain at their homes until they learn that a boat has been sighted, and they will then be in a position to take a train to the metropolis and to reach the pier before the vessel is made fast. Many vexatious delays will be obviated.
    This great improvement in the marine service will be instituted by the HERALD as quickly as the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy can be installed aboard the Nantucket Shoals Lightship and on the nearest point of land, Sankaty Head, on the Island of Nantucket. All necessary preliminary arrangements have been completed, and the system will be in working order during July.
    The United States Government has set its official seal of sanction on the project as one that will inure to the general good, and the representatives of the great steamship companies are enthusiastic in its praise. The HERALD has made a contract with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, of London, and special machines are now being manufactured for the service.

BEA	RINGS AND DISTANCES FROM
	NANTUCKET SHOALS LIGHTSHI					P.
	_________________________
		Bearings.			Distances.
	SANKATY HEAD	N.	⁷/₈ deg.	W.	43 miles
	Fire Island	W.	³/₄ deg.	N.	166 miles
	Sandy Hook	W.	³/₄ deg.	N.	193 miles
	Gay Head	N.W.	¹/₂ deg.	N.	69 miles
	Wood's Holl			--	78 miles

Quick Service for the "Herald."
    The Nantucket Shoals Lightship, usually called by mariners the South Shoals Ship, is noteworthy from the fact that it is moored farther from the shore than any other lightship in the world. It is anchored in about thirty fathoms of water forty-three miles from Sankaty Point. Block Island is ninety-five miles away north-west by west. Fire Island is 166 miles distant west by three-quarters south, while Sandy Hook is 193 miles in the same general direction as Fire Island. About sixty-nine miles to the north-west is Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard.
    To inaugurate the wireless telegraphic service it will be necessary to run a pole forty-seven feet above the mast of the lightship, which reaches sixty-three feet above the water line. Upon this the apparatus will rest. At Sankaty Head is a bluff about one hundred feet in height. The pole to be raised there will be 130 feet high.
    The communications received at the Sankaty Head station will be telephoned to the town of Nantucket, and forwarded from there to the mainland by telegraph. The news will reach the HERALD office almost as soon as the approaching liner is sighted by the lightship.
    The South Shoals Lightship is of modern construction, and is one of the most admirably equipped vessels of her class in the world. She is a two-masted steamer. with main engines of about 350 horsepower, and capable of developing a speed of seven knots an hour. She has on board an electric engine with direct coupling dynamo of ninety volts and eight kilowatts. There are two powerful lamps forward and two aft of the mainmast. There are good accommodations for the captain, mate, two engineers and crew of thirteen men. There will be ample room aboard for the engineers and telegraphers required for the installation and operation of the Marconi wireless telegraph system.
    It has frequently been suggested that the Government should lay a cable from shore to this lightship, which is in the steamer lanes, on the line of the billowy highway followed by the greater number of the transatlantic boats. The lightship is the last connecting link with the continent seen by many outward bound passengers and the first to greet those coming from Europe. The information it receives must consequently be the last and the first. Marconi Instruments

No Cable Possible.
    There is, however, no practical way of permanently maintaining a cable connection with a lightship, which not only drags her anchor, but also swirls and circles around it. A cable would be quickly fouled and destroyed. The sole feasible plan of sending information to the shore is by a wireless system, which has the additional advantage of permitting communication with passing liners which possess a similar equipment. By the aid of Mr. Marconi's invention the HERALD will solve the problem of obtaining news of vital import to the community.
    It is an unusual timing for a season to pass without having the lightship break from her anchorage. On such occasions she is always able to return by her own steam. If any serious damage is done and she has to put into port for repairs, a relief lightship is always kept equipped and provisioned at the station in New Bedford, Mass., ready to take her place at very short notice.
    Vessels bound for Europe usually pass within a very short distance of the lightship, and they could manage to pass even closer if they had any information to signal, knowing that it would be telegraphed ashore. Western-bound captains now seek to make the lightship, as the soundings give them an idea how to shape their course to time Sandy Hook lights, particularly in fogs and storms. They would be even more anxious if they understood that their appearance would be telegraphed ahead.

New Safeguard to Travellers.
    When the HERALD has installed its instruments on the lightship there will be a new safeguard for ocean travellers. Liners equipped with the Marconi wireless system will be able to receive signals in dense fogs, showing that they are in the neighborhood of the lightship; as the service improves passing vessels may be able to get their bearings amid the distance from the lightship.
    The practical utility of the wireless system was demonstrated last mouth, when a Channel steamer equipped with the apparatus for receiving signals obtained a message from a lightship stationed in the sea about twenty-five miles from Dunkirk. The signal was that part of the illuminating apparatus was out of order and unless communication could be had with land the lanterns could not be lighted on the following night. The Channel steamer acknowledged the receipt of the message, and upon touching port forwarded the information to the station at La Pan, on the Belgian coast. As a result machinery was sent in time to make the repairs, and the lights burned as usual.
    In the event of a similar accident on hoard the South Shoals Lightship, immediate communication could be had with the shore to avoid any interruption in the service.

Government Permission.
    Arrangements to establish the service were made with the Lighthouse Board, a branch of the Treasury Department. Formal permission was granted to install the system, and plans for the work on the lightship have been completed. Commander A. P. Nazro, U.S.N., lighthouse inspector for the Second District, made a personal examination and decided that the installation would be not alone feasible, but generally advantageous. The amount of work to be done is not very great, as the ship lends itself specially to the erection of the required pole, and has plenty of space for the necessary machinery. The work on shore at Sankaty Head presents no obstacles.
    So important is the innovation that the HERALD will press the work to a prompt conclusion, and under favorable circumstances, the extraordinary ship news service will be in operation next month. Steamers averaging eighteen knots an hour will be signalled by the HERALD about eleven hours before they reach the Sandy Hook Lightship.
    There is no longer any question about the practical working of the Marconi wireless telegraph system, which was used by the HERALD in reporting the last international yacht races for the America's Cup. Mr. Guglielmo Marconi then came to New York to take charge of the work, and under his supervision the reports sent from the HERALD tugs told a graphic story of Sir Thomas Lipton's valiant but unsuccessful attempt to "lift" the Cup with the Shamrock. By no other means could accurate information have reached the shore during the progress of the race.
    Mr. Marconi interested the United States Government in his invention, and many tests have since been made in the navy, the outcome being a report favoring the adoption of wireless telegraphy aboard men-of-war and the discontinuance of homing pigeons. Mr. Marconi expects to return to this country late in the summer, when he will lead to the altar a pretty American girl, Miss Josephine Bowen Holman. __________
STEAMSHIP MEN ARE DELIGHTED WITH PLANS. __________
All Agree that the New System of Announcing Ships Is a Great One. ______
    Steamship men in New York were delighted when they learned that the HERALD had perfected arrangements to signal passing steamers from the Nantucket lightship. A number of them were interviewed by the HERALD on the subject.
    "It would be a big thing to be informed ten or twelve hours in advance," remarked Mr. John Lee, manager of the White Star Steamship Company. "Any method by which quicker news could be obtained would be welcomed and would prove of general benefit to the people. The steamship lines tried some time ago to make arrangements to have ships bound for this port reported from the Nantucket Lightship instead of from Fire Island. That effort failed, and we will all appreciate what the HERALD does toward helping us."
    Mr. Herman Winter, of the North German Lloyd Company, declared that the HERALD'S enterprise was most praiseworthy.
    "We shall welcome most heartily the establishment of a wireless telegraph service between the Nantucket lightship and the shore," continued Mr. Winter, "and we shall feel that this is an important stride forward. The travelling public generally will appreciate the HERALD'S effort in introducing so important an improvement in the service. Persons living outside the city will be particularly interested, as they will be in a position to come to New York at the right time to meet returning relatives. The advance will be in the interest of the whole community, and of traffic generally.
    "I knew that some time ago the steamship companies addressed a communication to the Lighthouse Board with reference to obtaining communications from the Nantucket Lightship. I understand that the board then declined to act, on the ground that there were no appropriations available for the purpose. The North German Lloyd Company has introduced wireless telegraphy on the steamers Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Kaiserin Maria Theresia, and also on the new liner Kronprinz Wilhelm, and we will be particularly gratified by the use of the system on the lightship."

Best of the "Herald's" Enterprises.
    "Splendid!" exclaimed Mr. Emil Boas, of the Hamburg-American line. "This is by far the best of the HERALD'S many practical enterprises. You may count upon the Hamburg-American line to co-operate with the HERALD in every possible way. As soon as the station is established at Nantucket our captains will be instructed to report to the HERALD there in passing. Every vessel of our fleet will be equipped with the Marconi apparatus, so that full and free communication may be had between them and the Nantucket station while they are within the wireless zone.

Report to the "Herald."
    "The Nantucket station will have many uses. Speaking for my own company, I can see that it will be of great benefit to us. Our vessels take their bearings from Nantucket Light, but under existing conditions they lose considerable time by going out of their course to report at Fire Island. When the HERALD station is established, our captains will be instructed to report there, and then make the run to port over the straight course to Sandy Hook, without deviating to the north, as at present, to Fire Island.
    "As a newspaper proposition," Mr. Boas continued, "this Nantucket station should be of immense value to the HERALD, and surely will be if all, goes well. For a full hour passing steamships, equipped with the wireless apparatus, should be in communication with the station. In this time a bulletin of the world's news for the preceding week could be telegraphed to and posted on the steamship, while in return--speaking for the Hamburg-American--we would give you interviews, messages and any other news of interest connected with the voyage."

The American Line.
    "This is indeed good news," said Mr. James A. Wright, of the American Line, when the HERALD'S plans were unfolded to him. "The idea of establishing a marine station on Nantucket Shoals has long been under consideration, but so many difficulties were encountered that it had to be abandoned. I sincerely trust the HERALD will succeed in the commendable enterprise which it has undertaken. The American Line will lend its most hearty co-operation, and I doubt not that the HERALD, with its vast resources, will demonstrate the feasibility of the new system.
    "You may say that no effort will be spared by my company to assist the HERALD. The possibilities of the Marconi system are boundless, but this is purely an American enterprise, and the American Line will be proud to do anything which may contribute to its success.
    "The Nantucket station will be as a guiding star to all trans-Atlantic liners, and its very novelty will attract all eyes at the outset. Our commanders will need no urging once they are told to co-operate with the HERALD, for under the new order of things this station, with its budget of news, will supplant the pilot as a distributor of intelligence and serve as a magnet on the Western voyage.
    "The click of the telegraph instrument 'board ship cannot fail to stir the blood of every passenger, for all who hear it will know that the American Continent lies just ahead, to starboard, and that if events of vital importance have transpired during the voyage an accurate recital thereof is about to be transmitted from the Nantucket station.
    "In return, the HERALD will naturally expect to receive news of interest from the passing ship. 'Fair exchange is no robbery,' and the HERALD, with such an advantage, will take an even more advanced position in the field of journalism." __________
THE "HERALD'S" FORMER MARINE ACHIEVEMENTS. __________
    Some interesting reminiscences of the HERALD'S early work in collecting ship news are contained in Frederick Hudson's book "Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872." Mr. Hudson says:
    "With the organization of the ship news establishment and the aid of the Sandy Hook pilot boat the HERALD began its real career as a great newspaper. These were the early days of news excitement among the new class of journals of New York. Nearly all of the European news received then by sailing packets first appeared in the HERALD. Its fleet of pilot boats became known as the Teaser, the Celeste and the Tom Boxer, but the Teaser was the famous name in every newspaper office. The packet ships were boarded off Montauk Point, where the messengers would land and proceed to New York by locomotive. They would arrive at the HERALD office covered with perspiration and glory.
    "When the little steamer Sirius crossed the Atlantic and anchored off the Battery, in New York Harbor, early on the beautiful morning of April 23, 1868, followed a few hours after by the Great Western, not only New York, but the whole country was thrown into a delirium of excitement. It was only equalled by the laying of the Atlantic cable in 1866. The NEW YORK HERALD was buoyant on the topic. . . . With the increase of steamship lines the European arrangements of the HERALD were improved and enlarged, the celebrated Dionysius Lardner at one time having charge of. the bureau in Paris.
    "The Atlantic steamers the Sirius, Great Western, Royal William, Liverpool, and British Queen gave the New York papers opportunities to exhibit their enterprise in their own harbor. News schooners were of little use with steamships. They became obsolete. Swift rowboats and light sailboats were the best. These little skimmers of the sea could meet he steamers below Quarantine, and, while the inspection of the Health Officer was going on, these would run to the city, and have the news issued in extras before a passenger landed. Scenes of great excitement would occur on these occasions. No Oxford or Cambridge, or Harvard, or Yale regatta excelled the contests of the ship news collectors of New York.
    "The steam news yachts, splendid little water locomotives, were introduced in 1867. They overshadowed the news schooners of 1834 enormously. With these steamers the HERALD has perfected its marine department. With them, too, the HERALD has been of infinite service to the commercial community of New York. These steamers meet inbound ships some distance at sea. They enable the HERALD to boast of its enterprise.
    "When the Grand Duke Alexis visited New York that paper annoyed its contemporaries and made the Imperial family of Russia happy with the announcement of his safe arrival, the steam yacht Herald having boarded the frigate Svetland at midnight several miles from Sandy Hook.
    "Let us compare the HERALD of to-day with the HERALD of 1835. What a difference! Will not the HERALD of 1909, compared with the HERALD of 1872, show as marked a change? Nous verrons."
    The HERALD steam yachts often went forty miles outside the harbor in cruising for news, and vessels coming into the dark waters of the lower bay at midnight were boarded, so that the information they brought could be published in the morning. In addition to this, the HERALD established a station at Whitestone, L.I., to note the passing of all boats from the Sound.