You may be surprised to learn what sending out an SOS really means — and what it doesn't mean.
你可能会惊讶地发现，发出求救信号到底意味着什么，以及它不意味着什么。
Even children at play know that when you're in a life-threatening emergency — maybe you need to be rescued from an island filled with human-eating crabs that's also surrounded by lava — the way you let the world know you're in trouble is to wave your arms and signal distress by repeatedly shouting three simple letters: SOS.
即使是玩耍的孩子也知道，当你遇到危及生命的紧急情况时——也许你需要从一个满是吃人螃蟹的岛屿上被熔岩包围——你让世界知道你有麻烦的方式是挥舞手臂，反复喊出三个简单的字母来表示求救:SOS。
You can write them on the beach, send them via Morse code or, if you have a pen, write them on your hand and flash them at passersby. We all know that sending out an SOS signal is the best chance you've got at being rescued.
你可以在沙滩上写，也可以用摩尔斯电码发送，如果你有笔的话，也可以写在手上，然后向路人炫耀。我们都知道，发出SOS信号是获救的最好机会。
So, what does SOS mean? An SOS message must mean something important, right?
那么，SOS是什么意思?求救信息一定有重要的意义，对吧?
Nope. The letters SOS stand for nothing. Not "Save Our Ship," not "Save Our Souls" — it wasn't even originally designed to stand for letters of the English alphabet. Yet, it's the standard distress signal most people know.
没有。SOS这两个字母没有任何意义。不是“拯救我们的船”，不是“拯救我们的灵魂”——它最初甚至不是用来代表英语字母表中的字母的。然而，这是大多数人都知道的标准遇险信号。
Contents 目录
- The Introduction of Morse Code 摩尔斯电码的介绍
- SOS as a Universal Distress Signal 作为通用遇险信号的SOS
- The SOS distress Signal Takes Root SOS求救信号生根发芽
Although the letter sequence "SOS" stands for nothing, it came from somewhere as a replacement for a visual distress signal. That somewhere is Morse code, which was developed along with the wireless telegraph machine to send messages using electrical signals. Samuel Morse himself sent the first telegraph, which said: "What hath God wrought?" He sent the message in Morse code over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland.
虽然字母序列“SOS”没有任何意义，但它是作为视觉求救信号的替代品而出现的。这就是摩尔斯电码，它与无线电报机一起发展起来，用电信号发送信息。塞缪尔·莫尔斯自己发出了第一份电报，上面写道:“上帝创造了什么?”他用莫尔斯电码通过一条实验线路从华盛顿特区发送到马里兰州的巴尔的摩。
In Morse code, dots and dashes are assembled in different configurations to represent the different letters of the alphabet. In this way, messages could be sent wirelessly all over the world using radio equipment — even from ships.
在摩尔斯电码中，点和破折号以不同的配置组合起来，代表字母表中的不同字母。通过这种方式，信息可以通过无线电设备无线发送到世界各地——甚至从船上。
This proved useful, because prior to the beginning of the 20th century, ships were pretty much out of luck when they needed to get a message to shore. Morse code did not exist yet.
这被证明是有用的，因为在20世纪初之前，当船只需要将信息送到岸边时，它们几乎不可能。摩尔斯电码还不存在。
But as ships began carrying telegraph equipment, distress signals were adopted early and were great when the ship transmitting the signal and the operator on the receiving end spoke the same distress language. But at first, different countries used different codes for emergency situations, which was obviously not ideal.
但随着船只开始携带电报设备，遇险信号很早就被采用了，而且当发送信号的船只和接收端的操作员说同一种遇险语言时，遇险信号就很好用。但起初，不同国家在紧急情况下使用不同的代码，这显然是不理想的。
SOS as a Universal Distress Signal 作为通用遇险信号的SOSHowever, in 1905 the German government published the "German Regulations for the Control of Spark Telegraphy." It mandated that German wireless operators use "... --- ..." (three dots, three dashes and three dots) to signal an emergency. This didn't really have anything to do with letters of the alphabet, but it was quick and easy to type, and difficult to mistake for anything else.
然而，在1905年，德国政府发布了“德国火花电报控制条例”。它要求德国无线运营商使用“……——……”(三个点，三个破折号和三个点)表示紧急情况。这其实和字母表中的字母没有任何关系，但它打起来又快又容易，而且很难被误认为是其他东西。
It also happened to spell "SOS" in Morse code. Everyone agreed it was way better than "SSSDDD," which is what the Italians were pushing for at the International Radiotelegraph Convention in November of 1906. The term SOS was voted in as the official international distress signal and went into effect July 1, 1908.
它还碰巧用莫尔斯电码拼出了“SOS”。每个人都认为它比“SSSDDD”要好得多，这是意大利人在1906年11月的国际无线电电报大会上所推动的。1908年7月1日，SOS一词被投票选为官方的国际遇险信号，并正式生效。
The SOS Distress Signal Takes Root SOS求救信号生根发芽It took a while for the SOS distress call to catch on. SOS求救信号过了一段时间才流行起来。
For instance, the British Marconi International Marine Communication Company that outfitted ships with telegraph equipment preferred the distress code "CQD," or "-.-. --.- -.." in Morse code, and continued using it in Morse code sequence long after the SOS call was established as the international standard. In fact, it was the first distress code sent by the telegraph operators on the Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg, although they eventually used the SOS signal as well.
例如，为船舶配备电报设备的英国马可尼国际海上通信公司更喜欢遇险代码“CQD”或“-.-”。——在SOS呼救成为国际标准后很长一段时间里，人们仍在用摩尔斯电码序列来表示。事实上，这是泰坦尼克号撞上冰山后，电报员发出的第一个求救信号，尽管他们最终也使用了SOS信号。
The first recorded American use of SOS to call for help was sent Aug. 11, 1909, off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, when Theodore Haubner called for help from the steamship SS Arapahoe.
有记录的美国人第一次使用SOS求救是在1909年8月11日，在北卡罗来纳州哈特拉斯角海岸外，西奥多·豪布纳向SS阿拉帕霍号蒸汽船求救。
As the Morse code SOS call was initially intended for maritime use, it was replaced with the verbal signal "Mayday" at the International Radiotelegraphic Convention in 1927.
由于摩尔斯电码SOS呼救最初用于海上，在1927年的国际无线电报公约上被口头信号“Mayday”所取代。
Mayday is derived from the French "m'aider" which means "help me." But SOS couldn't be ousted so easily: Mayday is still in use today as the distress signal for voice communication, while the SOS is still used as the distress signal in telecommunication.
Mayday来源于法语“m’aider”，意思是“帮帮我”。但SOS并不是那么容易被淘汰的:Mayday今天仍然被用作语音通信中的遇险信号，而SOS仍然被用作电信中的遇险信号。
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