(at around 1h 45 mins) Captain Smith instructs his wireless operators to send out a CQD message over the airwaves, the traditional distress signal in those days. The letters are an abbreviation - CQ ("seeking you") and D ("distress"). At 12:15 a.m. first operator John Phillips begins tapping out CQD MGY - MGY being the Titanic's call letters.In a deleted scene of the film, which is almost identical to what is reported in Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember," second operator Harold Bride suggests they use the new distress call that had been agreed to at a recent international conference: "Send SOS; it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it." Phillips laughed at the joke and, at 12:45 a.m., he sent out the first SOS signal in history.

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