To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy Sm,—This will be my third attempt to call public attention to the necessity of putting on board all steamers the finest means the world knows to-day of summoning help in time of trouble, viz., wireless.
There are many instances of vessels getting ashore which could have been saved if assistance had reached them sooner, sometimes many days elapse before any assistance arrives at a stranded vessel.
I have worked a wireless apparatus on many occasions, and one of the fascinating things about it is that when one touches the key, the same moment the wave produced leaves, the aerial at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. I have merely mentioned this fact—to illustrate to non-technical readers that this is the speed that letters of a message can be tapped out. An 8.0.8. can be sent to all vessels and shore stations in a few seconds, the position of the ship in trouble would take a few minutes to transmit.
We have just read _a pitiful story of the wreck of the Hong Moh and its attendant loss of life, and although we have no details, I think it is safe to assume that she carried no wireless (and yet she had over 1,000 lives on board).
The ship that went to her assistance (it says in your paper of the 15th instant) had to leave the wreck and go in search of further assistance. It is also stated that they morsed to passing vessels and got no reply. If this is true, it is terrible reading—ships on the China Coast in the year 1921, trying to summon help with morse lamps to a wreck where terrible loss of life is taking place, and eventually having to leave the wreck to get help, is too shameful for any words of mine properly to express. This should be sufficient food for reflexion for those interested in shipping whether they are owners, crew, passengers or underwriters. I estimate there are 10 steamers passing every day within 10 miles of the Boat Rocks where the Hong Moh was wrecked.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.