Jack Binns, the wireless-telegraph operator on the RMS Republic that sank after colliding with the SS Florida on 23rd January 1909, near Nantucket, Massachusetts. Republic was issued with the new Marconi wireless telegraph system and became the first ever ship to issue a CQD (Come Quickly, Danger) distress signal, when Jack Binns transmitted the message for fourteen hours straight amidst the wreck of the wireless office. The Republic sank on 24th January, after passengers had been painstakingly transferred to the Florida, and then the White Star liner RMS Baltic.