Famous Morse code messages and the stories behind them
The most famous Morse code messages are a short list: “What hath God wrought”, sent by Samuel F. B. Morse on 24 May 1844; the CQD and SOS calls from the Titanic’s wireless room on the night of 14 to 15 April 1912; and the word TORTURE, blinked in Morse by Jeremiah Denton, a US Navy pilot held as a prisoner of war, during a televised interview in 1966. Behind them all stands SOS itself, the best-known signal the code ever produced.
Each of these is well documented, and each has picked up myths along the way. Here is what happened, what is often told wrongly, and what each message looks like in Morse.
1844: “What hath God wrought”
On 24 May 1844, Morse sat in the Capitol in Washington and sent four words by electric telegraph to his partner, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore: “What hath God wrought”. The phrase comes from the Bible, Numbers 23:23, and Morse did not choose it. It was chosen by Annie Ellsworth, and Morse sent it to open the new line.
The receiving instruments of the time, called registers, marked dots and dashes on a moving paper tape, so the first messages were read off paper rather than by ear. Operators soon learned to read the clicks directly, and on most lines the sounder replaced the register.
Two details are worth getting right:
- The punctuation. You will often see the phrase printed with a question mark. In the King James Bible the verse ends with an exclamation mark: it is wonder, not a question.
- The code. International Morse came later, so the 1844 line did not use it, and the code of that day differs from the one taught now. So the version below is how the phrase reads in today’s code, not a copy of the 1844 tape.
In International Morse:
.-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... -
Count the H’s: four dits each, di-di-di-dit, and there are four of them in the message. It is a good exercise for keeping a steady hand, since a hurried H easily loses a dit and turns into S.
What hath God wrought: the first long-distance telegraph message has the whole story of that day.
1912: CQD and SOS from the Titanic
On the night of 14 to 15 April 1912, after the Titanic struck an iceberg, its two wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, called for help in Morse. They sent CQD, the distress call the Marconi company’s operators had used, and they also sent SOS, the newer international signal.
| Call | Morse | Rhythm |
|---|---|---|
| CQD | -.-. --.- -.. |
dah-di-dah-dit, dah-dah-di-dah, dah-di-dit |
| SOS | ...---... |
di-di-di-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit |
The Carpathia, which picked up the survivors on the morning of 15 April, had learned of the disaster by wireless. Phillips died in the sinking. Bride survived.
Two myths cling to this night:
- It was not the first SOS. SOS had been in force since 1908, and ships had used it before 1912. The Titanic helped make it famous; it did not introduce it.
- Be wary of word-for-word quotes. Versions of the Titanic’s messages circulate with confident wording. The exact text of a message sent in a crisis is easy to misquote, so treat a dramatic line quoted word for word with care.
The Titanic and Morse code: CQD, SOS and the wireless room goes into the wireless room in detail.
1966: TORTURE, blinked on camera
In 1966 Jeremiah Denton, a US Navy pilot held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, was made to take part in a televised interview. While he answered the questions, he blinked a word in Morse with his eyes: T O R T U R E.
In code it looks like this:
- --- .-. - ..- .-. .
Spoken as rhythm: dah, dah-dah-dah, di-dah-dit, dah, di-di-dah, di-dah-dit, dit.
It is a word well suited to blinking. Three of its seven letters are a single element (T twice, and E), and the rest use only O, R and U. A long blink is a dah, a short blink is a dit, and the pauses between letters carry the spacing. Done slowly and steadily, it can be read by anyone who watches closely and knows the code, while to anyone who does not, it looks like ordinary blinking.
The story is a reminder that Morse needs no equipment at all. Anything you can switch on and off can carry it: a sound, a light, a tap, an eyelid. Tapping and blinking Morse code without any equipment shows how to practice both.
SOS: the famous message that is not a word
If any Morse message is known to nearly everyone, it is SOS. It was adopted at the 1906 International Radiotelegraph Convention in Berlin and came into force in 1908.
Two facts are often missed:
- SOS is one character, not three letters. It is a prosign, sent as nine elements with no gaps between the groups:
...---.... Sent with letter gaps, as... --- ..., it is just the letters S, O and S. - It does not stand for anything. “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are readings added later. The pattern was the point.
For most of the twentieth century SOS in Morse was the distress call at sea. That role passed to the GMDSS, fully in force on 1 February 1999, but the signal is still widely known, and SOS sent by any signaling method is still a recognized distress signal at sea. More in Why SOS? The real story behind the distress signal.
The famous messages side by side
| Message | Year | Sent by | In Morse |
|---|---|---|---|
| WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT | 1844 | Samuel F. B. Morse, by telegraph | .-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... - |
| CQD | 1912 | The Titanic’s wireless operators | -.-. --.- -.. |
| SOS | 1912 | The Titanic’s wireless operators | ...---... |
| TORTURE | 1966 | Jeremiah Denton, by blinking | - --- .-. - ..- .-. . |
What these messages share is not length or drama. Each one was short, sent under pressure, and had to be read correctly by the first person who received it. Morse rewards that kind of message: a few clean characters, evenly spaced.
Sending them yourself
The best way to feel these messages is to send them. You need nothing but a pencil and a table:
- Start with TORTURE. It has only five different letters, and three of its characters are a single element. Tap it slowly, saying the rhythm aloud.
- Then SOS, as one character. Keep the gaps between the dits and dahs all the same, one unit, so the nine elements run together without a pause.
- Then CQD, with its letter gaps. Leave a clear pause, about three dits long, between C, Q and D. Hear how different it sounds from SOS.
- Finish with the 1844 message. Four words, with longer pauses between them. Mind the H’s.
If you would like to hear and see them, Dot & Dash turns a message into Morse on a Mac: type WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT in Write and press Send, and the machine keys it, sounds it and prints it on its tape on screen, much as the first registers marked paper. You can save it to the Library or share the tape as an image.
Questions
What was the first Morse code message?
The famous first message on the line from Washington to Baltimore was “What hath God wrought”, sent by Samuel F. B. Morse on 24 May 1844. The words are from Numbers 23:23 and were chosen by Annie Ellsworth.
Was the Titanic the first ship to send SOS?
No. SOS had been in force since 1908, and it was used before 1912. The Titanic’s operators sent both CQD and SOS, and the disaster helped make SOS famous.
What did Jeremiah Denton blink in Morse code?
The word TORTURE, - --- .-. - ..- .-. ., blinked with his eyes during a televised interview in 1966 while he was a prisoner of war.
How do you write SOS in Morse code?
As one character with no gaps between the groups: ...---..., heard as di-di-di-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit.