This type of technology, we're talking about wireless telegraphy, was in its infancy. During the day, a signal could go 500 miles. At night, it bounced off the ionosphere and could go 2,000 miles. So this had a strange effect where David Sarnoff is sitting on top of Wanamaker's department store in New York in the middle of the night at a wireless room,

falling asleep when his headset goes off, and he gets the signals actually from Titanic,

saying she's sinking. So he relays that to the New York Times, which is a nothing paper.

And New York Times gets a scoop of the century.

History isn't just a bunch of names and dates and facts.

It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explained how and why we got here.

Welcome to the History Unplugged podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,

and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

160 minutes.

That's all the time rescuers would have before the largest ship in the world slip beneath the Atlantic.

When the Titanic hit in iceberg, there was amazing heroism and astounding incompetence

against a backdrop of the most advanced ship in history,

sinking with some of the richest and most famous people on board. It's a story of a network of wireless operators on land and sea who desperately sent messages back and forth across the

dark frozen Northern Atlantic to mount a rescue mission. More than 28 ships would be involved

in the rescue of Titanic survivors along with four different countries.

Now, the heroes of the story of the Titanic are seemingly well known, such as the captain.

But a lot of that has to do with the publication of the 1950s book A Night to Remember.

Today's guest is here to add a lot more nuance to the story of the Titanic,

and that's William Hazel Grove.

He's the author of the new book, 160 Minutes, The Race to Save the RMS Titanic.

At the heart of the rescue are two young Marconi operators, Jack Phillips, who is 25, and Harold

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