By Bernie Delinski Staff Write
Q: All my life, I thought SOS stood for Save Our Ship, but someone recently told me it’s not an acronym for anything. What is it then?
A: This is one of those, “What do you mean it’s not true?” things, but SOS does not stand for Save Our Ship.
According to an article in TodayIFoundOut.com, Morse code was a factor in designating those letters as a message of distress.
In Morse code, S is three dots and O three dashes.
The theory was that three dots, three dashes and three dots could quickly and easily be transmitted and it did not require much power to transmit.
While looking for this answer, I found some interesting trivia about the history of the usage of SOS.
According to titanic-whitestarships.com, the first recorded use of SOS was Jan. 23, 1909, when a liner called the Republic and an Italian liner called the Florida collided in the dense fog while passing Nantucket.
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