Anyone who has seen James Cameron’s blockbuster Titanic—or knows the story of the Titanic’s 1912 sinking, period—will no doubt recall the wireless operator who stayed at his telegraph key sending distress calls even as the icy Atlantic encircled his feet. So here’s an additional cocktail party fact or two: The operator’s name was Jack Phillips. And his place of employ—the radio room on the boat deck—was called a radio shack.