The following sequence of events appeared in "Wireless At Sea - The First Fifty Years",  by H. E. Hancock,  published in 1950 on behalf of The Marconi International Marine Communications Co to celebrate their Jubilee.

1  -  The first wireless message over WATER was in May 1897,  between a station near Penarth and an island in the Bristol Channel,  a distance of 3½ miles.

2  -  The first commercial wireless message was sent on November 5, 1898 from the Needles Wireless Station,  at Alum Bay,  Isle of Wight,  to Bournemouth and thence by land line to various parts of the U.K.  The sender was Lord Kelvin and it was said that he paid 1/- (5 new pence) royalty for each telegram.

3  -  At the end of June 1901,  at a Board Meeting,  it was reported that Marconi Stations had been set up at the following places  -  Withernsea,  Caister,  North Foreland,  Lizard,  Holyhead,  Port Stewart,  Rosslare,  Crookhaven and La Panne in Belgium,  Borkum Lightship and Borkum Lighthouse,  both in Germany.  In addition Marconi equipment had been installed at Nantucket Lightship and Siasconset in the USA and work was under way to equip Belle Island,  Canada.

4  -  The first ship to be equipped by Marconi commercially was the "Kaiser Wilhelm de Grusse",  in 1900.  She was owned by Norddeutcher Lloyd and had been built to capture The Blue Ribbon from Britain.  At the same time Marconi equipped the Borkum Lightship and the Borkum Lighthouse for ship traffic.  In the latter half of 1900,  580 telegrams were handled by the Borkum stations.  The German Government's interests in this development alerted the British Government and thus the General Post Office to a rival.

5  -  The first British ship to be equipped commercially was the "Lake Champlain",  in May 1901.  She was owned by the Beaver Line,  later to become the Canadian Pacific Steam Ship Company.  The first Marconi operator in the "Lake Champlain" was P. S. Stacey,  who had previously been the operator in the "Princess Clementine",  a Belgian ship fitted out by Marconi in 1900.  It would appear that the Needles Station at Alum Bay,  Isle of Wight,  could claim to be the first Marconi commercial shore station.  All those stations that had preceded its traffic on November 5, 1898 would appear to have been experimental stations.