Titanic radio room recreated at Fort Perch Rock in New Brighton

Apr 4 2012 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Titanic radio room recreated at Fort Perch Rock in New Brighton

THE radio room on the Titanic has been recreated at Fort Perch Rock in New Brighton to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

Members of the Fort Perch Rock Marine Radio group have worked tirelessly over the last few months to create an exact replica in a disused room at the former Napoleonic coastal defence fortress.

The radio room, which cost over £1,000 and was funded entirely by public donations, was officially opened on Friday by Peter Bibby, of shipping firm the Bibby Group.

The bow of the ill-fated ship has also been recreated and another exhibition room tells the story of Wirral’s many links to the White Star liner.

It includes newly-uncovered copies of a register showing White Star chairman Bruce Ismay – who survived the disaster – was a pupil at the private Seafield School in New Brighton.

When the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage, marine radio was in its infancy.

It is thought the ship was among the first passenger vessels to use the SOS signal to raise the alarm after it hit an iceberg in April 1912.

Stan McNally, one of the volunteers who worked on the project using photographs of the original radio room, told the News: “The Titanic was where safety at sea started.

“When a ship went down it used to be on its own but then Marconi came on the scene and invented the wireless.

It was the birth of worldwide communications. Although an awful lot of people died on board the Titanic, 700 people were saved because they were able to transmit the distress signal.

“It made everybody realise how important having that sort of communication was.”

The radio room is dedicated to Titanic’s two radio operators John George Phillips and Harold Sydney Bride.

Museum curator Doug Darroch said: “We wanted to commemorate it, and also to remember the Wirral connections to the Titanic and the 1,517 people who lost their lives that day.

“Wirral is second only to Belfast when it comes to Titanic links.”