Хоча насправді мова йде про порятунок тіла
А про спасение имущества по твоему мнению речь не идет? Сигнал может быть подан тогда , когда угроза жизни может быть вероятной , но не очевидной. Например при пожаре в трюме судна.
SOS ще розшифровується як Save Our Ship. Так що матеріальна сторона теж береться до уваги
Проте історично цей сигнал нічого не означав, крім набору знаків у коді Морзе. Тоді як Mayday походить від французького m’aidez чи m’aider, що означає "допоможіть":
The origin of S.O.S.Various theories have arisen regarding the origins of S.O.S., with suggestions that it is an initialism for save our ship, save our souls, or send out succour. Given its German origins, it would be surprising if S.O.S. stood for an English expression – and in fact these are all examples of folk etymology. S.O.S. doesn’t stand for anything but was chosen because it is easily transmitted in Morse (also known as Morse code), an alphabet named after its inventor Samuel Morse in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals. S.O.S. is transmitted as · · · – – – · · ·; that is, dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot.
Within a decade of its standardization, the term S.O.S. was used outside of radio code signals, in the transferred sense of ‘an urgent message or appeal for help’, and has also been used as an abbreviation for various informal phrases beginning same old (same old stuff, same old story, etc.).
Mayday
Mayday, an international radio distress signal used especially by ships and aircraft, has a more linguistic origin than the pragmatic approach of S.O.S. Although a connection to the month of May might seem likely, it is actually an anglicization of the French m’aidez or m’aider, meaning ‘help me’.
https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/07/01/sos-mayday/