Sinking by Static?

One evening last week an operator at the Miami station of Tropical Radio swung his receiver to the 36-metre band. It was 10:38 p.m., and the static was as noisy as an applauding audience. But faintly the operator heard: SSS . . . SSS . . .--the code for submarine attack.

He tuned as carefully as he could. Next he caught the ship's call signal: GFSB. This was the Empress of Australia, a pretty big prize. The uncertain staccato chatter continued: Torpedoed. . . . Now down by bow. All lifeboats over to port. . . . Deck awash. At 10:53 p.m.: Being shelled again. Lat. 15:30 N. Long. 18:20 W.

If the 21,833-ton Empress of Australia were sunk, this was big news, and U. S. editors slapped it on the front page. But within nine hours after the messages had been received the British denied that the Empress was sunk. She was safely in port. This turned the affair from tragedy to mystery. Nearest neutral port into which the Empress could have put from the position given was Freetown, over 600 miles away. At full speed it would have taken the Empress at least 24 hours to get there; yet the British Government declared her in port nine hours after the incident. The Government charged that the Nazis had pulled a war of nerves hoax, possibly to trick the Empress into giving her true position; the Nazis charged the British with lying about her safety.

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