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June 1, 2002
Vessel Data
Status: Enroute to Suva, Fiji from Brisbane, Australia
Latitude: 23-54.5’S
Longitude: 167-42.0’E
Total Distance: 1513.7 miles
Gone: 813.3 miles
24 Hr. Dist.: 267 miles
To Go: 699.2 miles
Current Speed: 11.1 kts.
Engine Setting: 73RPM’s, Port engine
Weather:
 Air Temperature: 75°F
Humidity: 90%
Wind: S/S/W
Knots: 15.0 kts
Clouds: Cumulus
Sea Temperature: 74°F
Water Depth: 665 Fathoms
Sunrise: 0629
Sunset: 1706
Aboard the TSGB
Day 41
Daily Log:
The sea has finally lessened as we cross the Coral Sea bound for Fiji. We are presently passing
south of New Caledonia, a French Protectorate. As we move northward and lower in latitude, the temperature is getting warmer and the shorts are back out.
Ships have come a long way since Marconi invented the wireless telegraph. No longer are ships
manned with a Radio Operator huddled over a typewriter in a small “radio shack” behind the bridge wearing a set of earphones for hours and copying messages in Morse code (a la Titanic).
 Today’s modern ships are equipped with a variety of sophisticated and automated communications equipment, most of which use PC
computers for the human interface. This equipment is at the heart of the technology that permits us to send you these cruise updates. The
equipment is so reliable, and the various systems so redundant in function, that most ships no longer carry a dedicated Radio Officer.
Instead, the ship’s Deck Officers fill that role. On the GOLDEN BEAR, the cadets spend an entire day working the various
communications systems and sending/receiving messages of different types.
 Cadet Parker is seen here hamming it up for the camera next to the INMARSAT-B antenna dome (there is
actually a small parabolic dish inside the fiberglass dome). This system allows the ship to talk via satellite anywhere in the world. You can pick up the phone and
talk to any phone in the world. The system also offers facsimile, telex and high-speed data services and permits us access to the Internet. This is the system our
computers will use to transmit this message and the digital pictures in it. This antenna is located just forward of the main mast.
 Other communications equipment includes our newest “radio station” which automates traditional terrestrial radio
operations. What used to take a dedicated Radio Operator and wall-to-wall and ceiling high banks of tube-filled radio panels is now contained in the small Global Maritime
Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) radio console.
This automated system can automatically select radio frequencies best suited for the time of day and distance to the receiving station, automatically tune the antenna to that
frequency and filter unwanted interference. We can use this radio system and talk with voice, telex and fax. This system
also incorporates automatic receipt of important weather and other navigational warnings. But, the heart of the system is to be able to pick up a distress radio message
automatically, whether there is someon
 e at the radio station
or not. It is completely automated and will sound an alarm for the bridge watch if a distress message is received. All ships in the world are required to carry this equipment.
 Cadet Parker and Elizabeth McNie, one of our licensed Deck Officers, show separate and portable distress
signaling devices in case all of the other equipment should fail. Betsy shows off an EPIRB (Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon) while Cadet Parker, holds a
SART (Search and Rescue Transponder). An EPIRB is designed to float free from a sinking vessel automatically and send a coded beacon to orbiting satellites to identify a
vessel in distress.
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