Titanic Disaster Prompts Timely Broadcast Service
By Howard Cohen
Branch Chief, Tactical Ocean Data Branch, Maritime Safety Office
Note: This article was originally published in the March/April 2012 issue of the NGA Pathfinder on the centennial anniversary of the Titanic tragedy.
A U.S. Navy submarine transiting under the polar ice field via the Denmark Strait receives a message that an iceberg lies directly across its intended track, 50 nautical miles ahead. It changes course to enter the ice at a different point. A routine safety message has forestalled a potential catastrophe.
NGA’s Maritime Watch, directed by Chris Janus, sent that message and screens safety messages national and international sources send to NGA.
The center is the outgrowth of the international community’s reaction to the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, said Janus. That tragedy was responsible for NGA’s current role in broadcasting time-sensitive marine safety messages; the center plays an indispensable role in NGA’s mission to warn mariners on the high seas of hazards to navigation.
“On April 14, 1912, in the afternoon, the German steamship Amerika spotted two large icebergs in what was then the most-traveled ocean route between Europe and America,” said Janus. “The Amerika wanted to warn the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, Washington, D.C., about this danger to safe navigation, but its transmitters were not powerful enough.
“Amerika spotted the ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage from Southampton (England) to New York. Amerika requested Titanic to relay the iceberg message to the hydrographic office. The wireless officer, whose main job was tending to passengers’ telegrams, sent the message to the hydrographic office via Cape Race, Newfoundland, but never passed the message to the bridge. At 11:40 that evening the Titanic struck an iceberg. The rest is history.
“The message from Amerika via Titanic and Cape Race reached the Navy Hydrographic Office early on April 15, 1912. But, by then the Titanic had sunk, killing more than 1,500 people. The magnitude of this disaster forced the world to confront the problem of time-sensitive navigation warnings to ships at sea.”
The following year, as a direct result of the Titanic tragedy, the Safety of Life at Sea Convention formed, said Janus. The convention led to an international treaty concerning the safety of merchant ships.
The convention initiated several reforms in navigation safety, said Janus. It began the International Ice Patrol to monitor ice conditions along the major Europe to America ocean routes. It required that transatlantic passenger ships maintain a lifeboat capacity to rescue all individuals on board. And, most importantly, it required all vessels at sea maintain a 24-hour radio watch. By 1921, these radio officers at sea were receiving safety messages from the Navigation Safety and Warning Service, maintained by NGA’s predecessor organizations.
In 1977 the International Hydrographic Organization established the Worldwide Navigational Warning Service (WWNWS), which divided the world into 16 navigational areas, called NAVAREAS.
“The WWNWS is an international, coordinated global service for sending information by satellite to ships on immediate hazards to navigation which might endanger the safety of life at sea,” said Dan Boileau, Maritime Watch operations officer. He and his team determine which messages go “out for the broadcast.” The maritime watch center is the voice of navigation safety for the U.S. Navy and merchant fleets. It processed over 200,000 messages last year. Of those, 7,000 were considered vital.
Today, NGA’s maritime watch center sends out six types of messages: NAVAREA IV; NAVAREA XII; HYDROPACs; HYDROLANTs; HYDROARCs; and special warnings.
The United States is the coordinator for NAVAREA IV (Western North Atlantic) and NAVAREA XII (Eastern North Pacific). Besides broadcasting NAVAREA messages, the broadcast desk also sends out HYDROPAC, HYDROARC and HYDROLANT messages, covering the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean geographic regions, respectively. These are similar in content but worldwide in coverage. NGA thus gives its customers the option of receiving all navigation safety messages from one U.S. source, said Boileau.
Such information includes failure of and/ or changes to major navigational aids, newly discovered wrecks or natural hazards (e.g., ice below 52 degrees north latitude) in or near main shipping lanes, military operations, search and rescue, cable-laying, scientific research and various other underway activities. Due to its wide ocean coverage, the broadcast also includes information concerning overdue and missing ships, aircraft or “man overboard” messages.
Specific notifications cancel navigation safety messages when they are no longer pertinent. A message addressing an exercise or event of known duration includes its own cancellation, usually one hour after the conclusion of the event. The Warning Service can also publish a U.S. Notice to Mariners correction for warnings that are sufficiently permanent in nature. Changing navigation conditions are not the only threat to safety of life at sea; changing political conditions can threaten shipping. NGA periodically broadcasts special warnings to alert customers to any potentially threatening political development.
NGA consults with the State Department, Chief of Naval Operations and other government organizations to determine the scope of the warning. NGA then transmits the special warning to U.S. shipping, government agencies and military commands worldwide.
Civilian marine analysts and Navy quartermasters jointly staff the 24-hour watch. Boileau makes-up the “watchbill” and is also responsible for training watchstanders.
“Training to stand the broadcast watch starts about six months to a year after a new employee arrives,” said Boileau. “That is the time needed to gain experience writing U.S. Notices to Mariners. For three weeks, the trainee observes and assists a veteran watchstander completing a rigorous qualification program.”
The training culminates with a certification exam that ensures the watchstander is competent to stand the watch solo, said Boileau.
“It’s a little bit intimidating at first,” said trainee Dave Anderson. “With all the equipment, messages coming in and the phone ringing, it can be hectic at times.”
NGA’s Maritime Watch Center is extraordinarily proud of its unique position and long-standing tradition of providing vital worldwide safety service to the U.S. Navy and civil mariners, said Janus.
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