Get Lucy!
by Doug McVarish
On May 7, 1915, the Cunard ocean liner Lusitania, on a voyage from New York to Liverpool, was hit by a torpedo fired from German U-Boat U-20 while off the Irish coast. The liner sunk in 18 minutes with a loss of 1,195 passengers and crew, including 123 Americans. This act was an important factor in the decision to go to war against the Germans.
What does the sinking have to do with New Jersey? It has been alleged, though never proven, that a 820-foot-tall German radio transmission tower located in the Atlantic coast saltmarshes of Tuckerton transmitted the message to the U-Boat authorizing its attack on the Lusitania.
In 1912, the wireless tower was constructed by the German telecommunications company Hochfrequenzmachinen Aktiengesellschaft fur drahtlose Telegraphie (usually referred to as HOMAG) on Hickory Island (present day Mystic Island). The tower was used to communicate with an identical radio telegraph station in Eilvese, Germany. Ostensibly intended to facilitate civilian trans-Atlantic communications, American officials soon became suspicious that it was being used for military communications. After information emerged that the Tuckerton station communicated with the German naval cruisers Dresden and Karlsruhe, President Woodrow Wilson issued an order forbidding the use of wireless stations for the sending or receiving of code and cipher messages or plain messages of an unneutral nature. The U.S. government appointed a naval lieutenant to serve as a censor at Tuckerton. The station continued to be operated by German nationals employed by HOMAG and continued to communicate with its counterpart in Eilvese, Germany. The Germans continued sending messages from the tower at the time of the sinking of the Lusitania.
Only a few days after the liner was sunk, a group of prominent academics and engineers argued the necessity of a Federal investigation to ascertain whether the German Government had abused the privilege of direct transmission across the Atlantic and that in view of the Lusitania tragedy, the president should demand that every message sent from Tuckerton and a sister transmitting station at Sayville, Long Island should be submitted to him with those in code translated. Although it appears plausible that the “Get Lucy” message was sent from either Tuckerton or Sayville, it has never been conclusively proved.
When the United States entered the war, the Tuckerton and Sayville stations were seized by the Government. The Tuckerton station was assigned to the Navy which used it primarily as a backup for communications from the Navy’s main transatlantic radio station in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The remaining German personnel at Tuckerton became prisoners of war. After the war, the station was sold to the Radio Corporation of America, which used it as a backup to their central transatlantic transmission facility in Rocky Point, New York. With changes in telecommunications technology, the transmitting station became obsolete, and in 1955 was removed to make way for Mystic Island, a large shore housing development.
Not all traces of the tower could be erased, however. The massive concrete blocks that served as foundations for the guy wire anchors of the tower would have required a herculean effort to remove. They remain standing, incongruous elements in the mid-century development.
For more information about the Tuckerton Wireless Tower, visit the Tuckerton Historical Society (35 Leitz Boulevard, (609) 294-1547). Hours: Wednesday (10-noon, 1-4), Saturday (2-4, June through Labor Day), Thursday (1st Thursday of each month, 7-9, February-October). www.tuckertonhistoricalsociety.org
Posted 23 November 2016
