The Story of a Wireless Hero 



How a wireless operator, with great ingenuity and re- 

 sourcefulness, repaired his apparatus during a terrific gale 



Bv J. Andrew White 



I LIKE to think of "Wireless Operator 

 A. S. McKenzie as a hero, although he 

 cannot be placed among those who 

 have clung to a swaying table and sent 

 out frantic appeals for aid as a submarine's 

 shells screamed by the radio cabin. Mc- 

 Kenzie's battle was against the greater 

 forces of Nature. And not alone that he 

 won, but because he stood a test of over- 

 coming apparently hopeless difficulties 

 by ingenuity and resourcefulness, his ex- 

 perience is worth the telling. 



It properly begins at a point 700 miles 

 from shore in a wintry sea. His ship, 

 the Pennsylvania, was not large, nor new. 

 She shivered from stem to stern with each 

 plunge into the seething green wastes as 

 the gale increased in fury; with terrifying 

 regularity her after-deck was buried un- 

 der heavy seas that swirled about the 

 wheel-house and strained to tear it loose. 

 Back in the saloon, off duty, the operator 

 wondered; there had been storms, but 

 never anything like this. 



A giant wave bore down on the strain- 

 ing vessel. With a crash and an ominous 

 long-drawn rip, the cover of No. 1 hatch 

 went over the side, the funnel wrenched 

 loose from its stays and the wreckage 

 from a smashed-in bridge, pilot house and 

 wireless cabin swept back with a clutter 

 of doors that had once protected forward 

 staterooms. Below, a muffled rumble 

 conveyed the information that the cargo 

 of liquid asphaltum had broken loose, 

 threatening annihilation of propelling 

 engines upon which safety depended. 



The Storm's Work of Havoc Begins 



Then, in the tumult, a pungent smell 

 of acid arose and large streams of oil 

 entered the saloon. All hands were 

 puzzled; but the operator knew. The glass 

 plate condenser of his set was mounted 

 on the deck, and the planking was 

 anything but secure. A crippled set to 

 oppose the greed of the furies! A stanch 

 spirit sank before realization of the truth. 



Slipping and sliding on the oil-soaked 

 floor, buffeted about by the roll of the 

 ship, he fought his way out of the saloon. 

 On hands and knees he struggled to the 

 wireless cabin. 



The place was knee-deep in water, the 

 set a wreck. On the floor the transformer 

 coil, two pairs of phones, accumulators, 

 the condenser and all the cells were adrift 

 in a slush of broken glass. A glance as- 

 sured him that the service switch was up, 

 the starter "off." Salt w^er, however, 

 had usurped the function of human hands 

 and had made a connection which kept the 

 motor running slowly. 



It must be stopped. Scrambling about, 

 gaining a precarious hold and losing it 

 with each wild pitch of the ship threaten- 

 ing to drop him amid the swirl of broken 

 glass and smashing equipment, he worked 

 to a favorable position. A few tugs and 

 off came the wiring. 



The Gale Redoubled in Fury 



The vessel rolled her top deck under 

 water and pitched like a frightened steed. 

 He fled the place, in search of the captain. 



That officer was found wedged in be- 

 tween the stove-in bridge and the pilot- 

 house; he had squeezed into this position 

 to keep from being blown overboard. 

 McKenzie reported conditions. 



"Leave everything and go below!" 

 bellowed the captain. "We can do noth- 

 ing now but try to save the ship." 



And below he stayed through a night 

 of terror. There was no sleep for anyone. 



With the first flush of dawn the wind 

 died down. The day broke clear, but 

 mountainous seas still tossed the vessel 

 about like a cork. No immediate need 

 for an SOS appeared, but there were im- 

 portant orders to be received from the 

 owners, the captain remarked as he dis- 

 consolately viewed the wreckage in tha 

 wireless room. Every effort must be made 

 to patch things up enough to get a 

 message through. 



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