ABSTRACT
Throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ships in distress depended on Morse Code to communicate their position to other passing ships. Though advanced for its time, Morse Code was far from perfect. Signals were often ignored, misinterpreted, or lost in the ether. Following the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the international maritime community realised a new method was needed to for ships to communicate their distress. This led to the development of the GMDSS. GMDSS was fully adopted by the IMO under SOLAS Chapter 4 on 1 February 1999. GMDSS sets a universal standard for communication protocols, procedures, and equipment that ships must use to communicate in times of distress. Under the GMDSS regulations, all cargo ships and passenger ships above 300 gross tonnes, and sailing in international waters, must carry GMDSS equipment on board. When the ship is in distress, the GMDSS transmitter on the ship sends a signal via satellite or radio wave which is then picked up by other GMDSS receivers. GMDSS is also used for sending and receiving MSI.
