"Radio and the Safety of Life At Sea", with Ron Farris

Chatham Marconi Maritime Center welcomes former maritime radio operator Ronald Farris to its Virtual Summer Speaker Series

Ron Farris, a member of Chatham Marconi’s Board of Directors and a volunteer at the Marconi-RCA Wireless Museum, is a former radio operator at Chatham Radio WCC. He will discuss four different actual distress scenarios where radio and/or the radio officer played a key role in ensuring the safety of life at sea. His talk will include the significance of the Antinoe, Morro Castle, Tashmoo and Marine Electric disasters in improving the effectiveness of radio communications and rescue operations.  

Our speaker is a Chatham Native and twelfth generation descendent of William Nickerson – founder of the Town of Chatham. He has deep family ties to Chatham Radio. His Mother was a Navy WAVE stationed there during WW II. His Great Uncle, Francis Doane was a radio operator at WCC from 1928 to 1975. His Brother, Bill Farris was a station technician and the last station manager at WCC. Ron learned the Morse code at age fourteen by sitting next to his uncle at WCC. After earning his commercial radiotelegraph license, he worked at WCC as a Radio telegrapher from 1978 to 1993.