Al Klein wrote:
The only thing the GPS-based system does is give you an exact location
- it doesn't notify anyone of anything.

"EPIRB - Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons, or EPIRBs,
are used when a ship is in distress, to emit a radio signal
marking the ship's location."

If radio had not existed, the next passing ship would have
rescued any survivors.

The way it usually was in the centuries before radio (just ask the
crew of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha) was that when the ship sank the
people on her died. (The Atocha's crew were all hardened sailors, yet
only 3 crew members - out of 265 people aboard - clung to the wreckage
long enough to be rescued.)

Yes, that's what I said. Passing ships rescue survivors.
--
73, Cecil, http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp