For a few minutes all sending and receiving is stopped while the ship throws out her name, over and over again. Soon the wireless man catches Nantucket's reply, and explains that he could recognize the operator's sending among a thousand.
"It is as easy to recognize an operator from his touch as it is to pick out a familar voice in a crowd," he continues. "They sound much alike to you, but you will soon get to know a man's speed, his touch of the key, whether light, strong, or hesitating. Almost every operator, besides, has some little trick of his own. Then there is a great deal of difference in the machines themselves."
Then he plunges into the work of sending and receiving messages..