This is CBS High on the World. I'm John Batchel.

The night of the 14th, the morning of the 15th of April, 1912.

Titanic. I welcome Charles Pellegrino, the author of Farewell Titanic and the Californian incident,

and my guide on Titanic these many years.

The Carpathia, we concentrate on the Carpathia, the rescue ship,

because of the revelations Charlie can provide about what happened to the survivors immediately afterwards,

and also some of the clues that are still out there about ghost ships. Charlie, a very good evening to you.

The night of the 14th is when the incident occurs on Titanic. They then send out rescue signals,

SOSs for the hour and a half, two hours it took to sink.

The Carpathia receives, is it an SOS signal?

What is it that the Carpathia hears to know that they have to steam toward Titanic?

Good evening to you.

First, yes, first they use the signal, the old signal, CQD.

Very recently the SOS became a signal.

Very easy to transmit and for anyone to understand,

did, did, did, dot, da, da, did.

And the two guys in the radio shack, they were, oh, gee, yeah, they went into a bit of gallows humor and said,

well, how about we use the SOS signal, the news signal, looks like it may be your last chance

to use it.

They had an odd sense of humor.

The very last signal they sent out, which for a while was difficult for people

to figure out was two V's that were picked up as water was just about to reach the radio shack.

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