MARITIME
RADIO
STATIONS
OF THE
WORLD
Portpatrick
Radio
GPK
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PRINCESS VICTORIA
GZMN
On 31st January 1953, Bob Mason was off duty and in his garden with
the broadcast radio humming away in the background. As he worked away
he heard the musical note of GPK, the Coast Radio Station at Portpatrick
and at which Bob was a Radio Officer, breaking through. This was not
an unusual event - but what Bob was hearing that day was unusual and
he picked up a diary and a pen and started jotting the Morse Code signals
as they came through.
On 31st January 1953 the railway steamer
PRINCESS VICTORIA, radio callsign GZMN,
on passage between Scotland and Northern Ireland,
sank with great loss of life
On 31st March 1982 the voice of Bob Mason on 2182kHz announced "All
ships, this is Oban Radio - closing down - for ever." Bob had transferred
from Portpatrick to Oban many years before and this last day of service
for the Oban station also marked Bob's retiral from the Coast Radio
Station service. After closing Oban down, he brought out a diary which
was sealed with sticky ticker tape - the type of tape which used to
form the content of telegrams. This was the diary in which Bob has written
down the GPK signals on 31st January 1953 and which had been sealed
since that day. He slit the diary open and there was the record of the
sad tale of GZMN.
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