Random musings

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Today, the post from Port Columbus/National Civil War Naval Museum on Facebook was the factoid that "S.O.S." does not mean "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls," but was chosen purely because the short-short-short-long-long-long-short-short-short pattern was very recognizable (and presumably, easy to remember even for non-telegraph operators).

But it got me thinking about "BZ" ("Bravo Zulu") which is basically "Well done." How old is that, and how did it come about? "Bravo" I can understand, but why Z?

 

[AndyHall]

Bravo Zulu starts showing up in newspapers in the early 1960s.