CQD

Philips and Bride in the wireless room

CQD (Morse Code _._.  _ _ ._  _..) was a radio distress call that was commonly used by British ships in the early 20th century. It is a modification of the earlier CQ signal which meant "all stations." (preseumably D stands for distress) Many believe that CQD stands for for "Come Quick Distress", "Come Quick, Danger!" or "Come Quickly Dammit" etc. However, this is not true.  While SOS had become the international standard in 1908, many Birtish radio operators weren't enthusiastic to be adopting a distress signal that originated in Germany. Because of such, British ships often used this.

In Titanic, Captain Edward Smith gives an order to a confused Jack Phillips to transmit CQD after the collision with the iceberg. In a deleted version of that scene, Harold Bride jokingly tells Philips to send also send SOS as " it may be our only chance to use it." Thinking it might be the only time he'll get to use. He alternates between the two.