Dots, Dashes, and a Ship at Sea
In 1836, Samuel Morse and his partner Alfred Vail invented a way to send messages down a telegraph wire using only two signals: a short one (a dot) and a long one (a dash). Every letter and number became its own pattern.
Decades later, ships at sea used Morse code with flashing lamps and radio beeps to call for help. Your job: learn to send and receive real Morse code, then decode a series of urgent transmissions coming in from a ship in trouble.
The most famous Morse message in the world is SOS: · · · – – – · · ·. It wasn't chosen because it stands for anything — it was chosen because the pattern is short, simple, and impossible to mistake for something else.
📖 The Morse alphabet
Every letter and number is its own pattern of dots (·) and dashes (–).
🎧 Practice: type it, see it, hear it
Type a short word. See its Morse pattern, then press Play to hear it exactly the way a real signal operator would.
🔑 Practice: send a message yourself
Build a letter using the dot and dash buttons, or try the real telegraph key below. Watch it decode as you go!
You're sending:
That spells:
🔌 Try the real telegraph key
Tap it quickly for a dot, hold it a little longer for a dash. Pause briefly between letters, pause longer between words.
Space out your taps — a short pause moves to the next letter, a longer pause moves to the next word.
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The full transcript is locked
Decode all seven transmissions to unlock it. Every message is part of the story!