A FARMER has helped to recreate the chilling messages sent from the Titanic just hours before it sank in the Atlantic with the loss of 1,517 lives.

Richard Langford, from Wellington, was one of three radio enthusiasts invited to Liverpool to record the exact Morse code SOS calls sent from the doomed ship on April 14, 1912.

The messages will be played to visitors at an exhibition due to be held at the city’s Maritime Museum next year to mark the disaster’s centenary.

“It was quite eerie to be sending the same messages as the operators,”

said Richard, a member of Hereford Amateur Radio Society.

“One of the ones I sent was: ‘This is the Titanic come at once – we’ve hit a berg’.”

Richard has been a fan of radio communication since he was a youngster but also has an interest in Morse code. He added: “I’m a very keen Morse operator.

Unfortunately Morse is no longer used by the army or the ships. It’s a shame although it is used by some countries abroad.”