Q&A: The origin of ‘SOS’ and ‘mayday’

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we're beyond help..

Q: Hi AWC, where do we get the term “SOS” from?

A: Good question! Do you have any theories?

Q: I think I’ve heard people say it stands for “Save Our Souls”?

A: This is a popular theory. Another often cited is “Save Our Ship”. But both, while now fully associated with the term, are not part of its origin story.

Q: Ooooh, okay, so we have a mystery. Call Inspector Morse!

A: Or in this case, Inspector Morse Code!

Q: I see what you did there.

A: Thank you. So Morse Code was pioneered by Samuel Morse in the 1840s and became the language of telegraphy throughout the second half of the 19th century. Each letter or number was represented by a series of dots or dashes – and messages were conveyed across telegraph wires in this way.

Q: Beep beep beeeeeep!

A: Actually, it was initially just a series of clicks onto paper. They wouldn’t be represented by actual tones until wireless radio signals came along in the 1890s. This revolutionised one particular communication method.

Q: Let me guess. Tin cans and string?

A: Um, no. Communication with ships.

Q: Yeah, that makes more sense.

A: If you think about it, there was previously no way to get wires to a ship floating in the ocean. But Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi changed all that with this wireless method.

Q: What did ships use before this?

A: All sorts of things, such as flares, foghorns – but mainly a flag signalling system called “semaphore”. However, none of these could match the range of radio.

Q: Radio killed the semaphore star!

A: Haha, cute.

Q: So how did SOS come about?

A: Well, as you can imagine, one of the priorities of any new communication system is coming up with a way to indicate that you are in distress.

Q: Yup, that makes sense. After all, no one needs to urgently reply to a “all good here, nothing to report, in fact we just saw some dolphins” signal.

A: Exactly. By the early 1900s, everyone realised they needed an international standard for distress. One idea proposed in 1904 by Marconi’s own company was the morse “CQD”.

Q: Wait, what?

A: CQD. The “CQ” part had already been in use by Marconi’s operators as a way to signal all channels. The “D” stood for distress.

Q: Was it at least a catchy morse code?

A: Not really. It was “dash-dot-dash-dot / dash-dash-dot-dash / dash-dot-dot”.

Q: Surely no one went with this? How confusing!

A: You have to remember that radio operators were highly trained to understand this language. That said, there were a few other competing ideas.

Q: What were they? 

A: The US Navy wanted to adopt the semaphore’s “NC” code for distress. And another was adopted in 1905 first by the German government.

Q: Was it “nein nein nein”?

A: It was not. In fact, unlike Marconi’s team, who sought to overlay the Morse codes with their own system, the Germans simply went back to basics with their Notzeichen signal – the tones themselves. They decided that “dot-dot-dot / dash-dash-dash / dot-dot-dot” was the clearest way to communicate distress.

Q: So it started with the tones, not the letters?

A: It sure did. In fact, it was only later referred to as “SOS” when adopted as the International standard in 1906. At the same time, Americans, who used a slightly different version of Morse Code that had three dashes for the number 5, called it the “S5S” code initially.

Q: Hilarious to think of ABBA or Rihanna singing “Ess five ess”!

A: True. Anyway, despite becoming the preferred maritime distress signal, many old school operators would continue to use the earlier adopted “CQD” signal. In fact, during the Titanic sinking, the radio operators famously used only the older signal at first, before deciding to try the newer “SOS” signal.

Q: Dot! Dot! Dot dash, dash, dash, dot. I believe that the dot will dot on….

A: Haha, nice. Anyway, not long after, World War I came along and cemented its use by ships at battle. And things “Save Our Souls” that get mentioned today are what’s known as a “backronym” – retrofitting an acronym into something that didn’t originally have it.

Q: And I guess it eventually became more universal outside shipping lanes?

A: Yes, by 1918 the term “SOS” was being used figuratively for “urgent help” – not just by boats. And of course, the dots and dashes are no longer required.

Q: What about “mayday” – that seems to have taken over in modern times.

A: Certainly for flight emergencies. It first appeared in the early 1920s and is credited to Frederick Stanley Mockford of Croydon Airport in England. “SOS” had not been effective as the letter “S” didn’t translate well audibly for operators, so Mockford trailed the use of the term “mayday”.

Q: Why?

A: Perhaps due to the fact that most flights back then were from England to France and this word was a way to mash the languages together. “Mayday” sounded like m'aidez – the non-standard French for “help me” or m'aider – for “come help me”. By 1927 it was adopted internationally and the rest is history!

Q: Thanks for the lesson. So to recap, “SOS” was first adopted by the Germans in 1905 based on the simplest sounding mix of Morse Code tones. And only later was it backdated to stand for “Save Our Souls”.

A: Dash-dot-dash-dash / Dot / Dot-dot-dot !

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