Introduction by John Godl
Australia has many links to the tragic sinking of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, more continue to surface, a new account came to light recently with the discovery of an unpublished memoir entitled "Roaming Around", by Edward Daniel Alexander Bagot (1893-1968).
Known to friends and family as 'Alec', he was born at Henley Beach, South Australia, but spent much of his early life in England. When the 20thcentury was young he was trained by the father of radio Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) to be a wireless operator and worked for the White Star Line on its celebrated new ocean liner RMS Olympic, sister ship of Titanic, and served under its ill-fated Captain E.J.Smith.
He would later serve Australia with distinction as a communications officer in Iraq during the First World War, become a successful businessman and a Member of the South Australian Parliament after it, but his thoughts often returned to the night he was on the Olympic's bridge and a wireless witness to a tragedy which shocked the world.
Here follows his reminiscences, from Chapter 8 of said memoir:
'Wireless at Sea - 'Olympic' - 'Titanic'.
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top R: Edward Daniel Alexander Bagot during WW1
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