On this day 25 years ago, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System or GMDSS was fully implemented. It was an important date in maritime history, almost exactly 100 years after the first use of wireless technology to aid a ship called the East Goodwin Lightship, which was in distress after being rammed by a freighter offshore from Deal in the UK on 3 March of 1899. In the 1960s, the International Maritime Organization - IMO recognised the value of satellite communications to overcome the di