# Telegrams from sea - costly or not?



## avide (Mar 1, 2013)

Hi OMs, could You please dig into your notes or somewhere in memory to get some knowledge about telegrams (yeah, I've heard of Marconigrams)?
How much did cost a telegram from sea to coast and in the other direction too? Was it priced per word?
I know that British stations charged in gold francs - how much was it in USD approx in 60s and 70s?
How prices were different among different stations? Were there different tariffs according to a company that R/O was leased from?
I know, some of them were sponsored (therefore free to send), like Savoy reservations sent from a ship.


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

It's been a long time but, as far as I remember there were three charging elements to a telegram - the ship station charge, the coast station charge and the land line charge. Messages on official ships business and the R/O's private traffic were usually free of the ship station charge. Telegrams were charged per word.

Coast station of all nationalities used gold francs, not just British stations - it was invented as a universal currency for traffic accounting.

As I said, it was a long time ago and I'm sure someone will come along with more information and also correct me if I'm wrong.


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## BobDixon (Oct 17, 2008)

Priced per word with a minimum of 7 words. For UK ships the Sterling charges from 1 Oct 1975 were Ship Charge 6 pence plus UK Coast Station Charge 6 pence plus Telegraph charge for destinations in UK and Eire 5 pence = total of 17 pence per word. There were additional per word charges for forwarding on to non-UK destinations.

To UK registered ship charges were 15 pence per word (of which 6p was the ship charge element) plus a fixed charge (the amount of which I haven't found yet!)

Above from Notice to Ship Wireless Station No. 1 of 1975.


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

Ah but they could be very very very expensive in other than purely financial terms, when for example one joined an unfamiliar ship then sailed, only to find that no radio station would accept messages as the owners no longer had an operational account - trading insolvent.
Not a nice experience at all.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

When I first went to sea there were up to 15 letters and/or characters in a word so you could run actual words together, with up to a max fo 15 characters and only be charged for one world. Something tells me that the number of characters were reduced to 10 but not sure about that.

John T


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

Yep - 10 characters per word introduced around early/mid 70s.

Steve.

(Thumb)


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## avide (Mar 1, 2013)

Thanks! What about messages sent by passengers from a ocean liners and cruise ships, like Oriana or Queen Mary? In SN's photo gallery of R/Os there was a shot of radio room with a comment that most of the traffic was generated by passengers.
I know that radiograms sent from Polish old liner Batory (SPEE) via SPA could be sent further to a person's place as a telegram by Polish Post Office (AFAIR there was a tariff for that but it didn't cover all the costs involved - you had to add radio costs). Maybe the same rule applied in different parts of the world too.
It's interesting indeed. All the traffic on CW ended on paper somewhere...


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## expats (Mar 9, 2013)

I sailed on a ship crewed mainly by Gaelic speaking 'Teuchters'...whenever we were in range of Oban Radio I made calls for crew members as 'ship-shore' telephone calls...They were all in Gaelic and, after every one, Oban would ask me to confirm that the quality was 'non commercial' and so I never actually charged anyone...


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

That's basically what happened everywhere Avide. Not sure if the shipcharge was higher for passengers than it was for crew or not - did the shipping companies made money out of the "bloods"?

I mentioned recently on another thread, the difficulty I had sending a message to a passenger on a ship. Gave up and wrote a letter in the end. Seems odd in these days of instant comms everywhere else.

Expats, I made a few "uncommercial" personal link calls through UK coast stations - belated thanks to GPO staff.

John T


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## Jeff Taylor (Oct 13, 2006)

Somewhat OT, but when Queen Mary 2 came out they had a keyboard attached to the TV in each cabin with an email address they gave you ahead of time. IIRC it was around $.50 per email, and they showed up on your TV. Naturally that was so cheap and convenient that they eiminated it and now have WIFI or cell phone repeaters throughout the ship (both expensive) in addition to the direct dial phones in cabins. Too bad. Used to crack me up when I saw the guys with sat phones out on deck when the alternative was so convenient!


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## hughesy (Dec 18, 2007)

was it 5 characters for code,and was'nt the speed of sending and receiving 5 
characters per word?? forgot how many for plain language?? difirent rate for msg's no ship charge

all the best
Hughesy


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Five character code groups were used in the morse tests for PMG certificates. I think messages could be sent in strings of code letters/characters with up to 15 being counted as a word.

In 2nd Class PMG the keying speed was: Plain Language, 20 words per minute, Code, 16 words per minute, Figures, 12 words per minute. Code and figures being sent in groups of 5 characters per word.

In First Class, the speeds were highter but I can only remember 25 wpm for plain language.

John T


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## n. liddell (sparks) (Nov 21, 2008)

1960,s -5letters for code - 15 letters for PL - Ship Letter Telegrams (SLT) 1shilling 10 pence per word - Masters Service Grams (MSG) 1 shilling 3 pence per word via British coast stations and Portishead Radio. i.e. SLT approx. 9p - MSG approx. 6p


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Wasn't a Ship Letter Telegram (SLT) charged at a minimum of 22 words for ten shillings (10/-)? If not, at least it gave me a chance to feel young and write 10/- for ten bob. N. Liddell wasted his chance of writing 10d for ten pence.

John T


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## Binnacle (Jul 22, 2005)

Surprised there has been no mention of the commercial telegram code books used by shipowners to reduce telegram charges and also to afford a degree of confidentiality. I remember in my younger days the OM would send a weekly coded sitrep to the owners on a Sunday. This particular company used the Lombard code. This book was retained in the master's cabin. The R/O might be unaware of the contents. ( handy if he has flipped (Jester) )
A google search gives - 

Example code words:

From the A.B.C Telegraphic Code (5th Edition) 
paromella — in leaving the dock (harbour) struck the pier, damaging the stern
arimaspen — Phaeton with 6 B.H.P. two cylinder motor to seat four passengers speed — miles per hour
haubarer — Charterers will allow the option of carrying horses for ship's benefit
From the A.B.C Telegraphic Code (6th Edition) 
ENBET — Captain is insane
From Bentley's Complete Phrase Code 
oyfin — has not been reinsured
azkhe — clean bill of health
atgam — have they authorised?
From the telegraphic cipher code specially adapted to the cotton trade 
dress — the supply from India will be less than expected
insane — at what price, free on board and freight, can you offer us cotton for shipment by steamer sailing this week?
puncher — we anticipate rate of interest will be reduced by Bank of England
From 'Unicode'[3] (which, unlike the others, was intended for domestic use in addition to commercial; unrelated to the Unicode computing standard) 
dionysia — Amputation is considered necessary
annosus — Confined yesterday, Twins, both dead, Mother not expected to live
cognosco — Dining out this evening, send my dress clothes here


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Private Code books were on sale in newsagents throughout Grimsby. Fishermen were prolific radiotelegram senders, much so more than Merchant Navy personel. The code books were for economy rather than secrecy.

The trawler companies were a different matter altogether. Codes were changed daily and would have challenged Bletchley Park.

John T


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Most of the codes used by ships that I sailed on in the 1960s used 5-letter groups (I assume that was to take advantage of the fact that non-words were counted as two or more words if they exceeded 5 characters). 

The Old Man coded and decoded the messages himself, handing me the coded message on a Marconigram form for transmission. All I did was to count the words and complete the message preamble before contacting a coast station and sending the message.

Received messages were typed out by me as groups of 5 letters and handed to the Old Man for decoding. Frequent use enabled the R/O to recognise some of the groups such as destination instructions.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Remember how some of those weirdos would keep the "orders" a secret until they absolutely had to give it out? I could never tell if it was egomania or just indifference to everyone else on board.

John T


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## richardwakeley (Jan 4, 2010)

G'day Binnacle (Post #16).

Photo of Bentley's Code Book attached

Richard (ex ICSN)


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## n. liddell (sparks) (Nov 21, 2008)

Ron Stringer said:


> Most of the codes used by ships that I sailed on in the 1960s used 5-letter groups (I assume that was to take advantage of the fact that non-words were counted as two or more words if they exceeded 5 characters).
> 
> The Old Man coded and decoded the messages himself, handing me the coded message on a Marconigram form for transmission. All I did was to count the words and complete the message preamble before contacting a coast station and sending the message.
> 
> Received messages were typed out by me as groups of 5 letters and handed to the Old Man for decoding. Frequent use enabled the R/O to recognise some of the groups such as destination instructions.


I definitely remember KIZTO - BP -I think it was something boring like "full stop"


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

In my experience Greeks and Egyptians sent lots of private QTCs; the cost didn't seem to matter. 
Of course on Greek-flag ships there was a special low cc/ll charge for QTCs through SVA; when I first 'went Greek' in 1969, this worked out at about 3d per word (Niarchos used to pay in sterling). Any minor family occasion would therefore be an excuse for a flood of messages in both directions. As it was common for several members of the same family to be on any given ship, a simple 'happy birthday' (ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΠΟΛΛΑ) could involve several hours' work. 
Easter and Christmas needed careful advance planning. When Hosny Mubarak became president of Egypt he was very popular and messages to/from crew-members exhorting their families, or being themselves exhorted, to 'support Mubarak' went on for a month.


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## SparksG1714 (Oct 23, 2009)

avide said:


> Hi OMs, could You please dig into your notes or somewhere in memory to get some knowledge about telegrams (yeah, I've heard of Marconigrams)?
> How much did cost a telegram from sea to coast and in the other direction too? Was it priced per word?
> I know that British stations charged in gold francs - how much was it in USD approx in 60s and 70s?
> How prices were different among different stations? Were there different tariffs according to a company that R/O was leased from?
> I know, some of them were sponsored (therefore free to send), like Savoy reservations sent from a ship.


UK registered ship to UK via a UK-based coast radio station (or a radio station elsewhere in the world belonging to the Empire Area Scheme) was 1s 8d per word in 1964. Minimum seven chargeable words. Split into three components: ship station charge = 7d (not levied on ships' business traffic [MSGs], Master, Mate, and R/o -- conditions varied from radio accounting authority to RAA (we call them QRCs in r/o speak); coast station charge = 10d; and land-line charge = 3d. The 1s 8d total is about 8p per word.
If a non-UK flag vessel to UK coast radio station, then charges were calculated in Telegraphic Gold Francs and then converted to senders' local currency. Those charges were much more. 
In the addressee's town a "smartly" dressed motorbike boy (on BSA Bantam) hand delivered the telegram directly to addressee on receipt from GPO (General Post Office) tape printers' major towns' sorting offices

There was also a Ship Letter Telegrams' service (10s for 20 words = 50p) These were posted from the UK coast radio station that received them to the addressee. Addressee usually received it the following day in the mail.

Hope that helps?

... Why can I remember this when I can't remember where I put my glasses? (Fly)


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