Communications Comes to Country Island

A couple of weeks ago a picture was posted of Willis Langley in uniform,
presumably when he was in basic training at Debert, NS., and it brought
back these memories that I will share with you now.

During the years of 1941/ 42, known by the U- Boat branch of the German
naval forces as "The Happy Time", U-Boat activity off our coast was
intense. Day after day in those years the dishes in the kitchen
cupboards in the Country Island dwelling would rattle with the
reverberations of depth charge and torpedo detonations between this area
and Sable Island. Oft times we could see the smoke from the coal burning
ships in the inner lines of convoys passing up the coast bound for
Europe. I guess you could say that we were near the front lines in the
battle of the Atlantic.

Prior to the out break of WWII, the light stations off the Atlantic
coast had no communication with the mainland , at least as far as radio
was concerned, with the exception of St. Paul and Sable Islands, and the
Lurcher Shoals and Sambro lightships; and Ottawa couldn't have cared
less. Any reports could be made by post, whenever the keeper could get
ashore, was fine with them. However, with the submarine wolf packs
running rampant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and all along the eastern
seaboard of Canada and the US. it became a matter of the highest urgency
that the lights be fitted with radio so that they could report any enemy
activity in their area as soon as it was noticed.

One day in March 1943, a small black coaster ran up outside the Island
and when she reached the vicinity of Isaac's Harbour fairway buoy she
swung on toward the Island and eventually anchored in the deep water
back of Middle Ground, and her crew proceeded to put a dory over side.
Watching with the "glasses" we could see the crew putting crates aboard
the dory,and presently they cast off from the vessel and with three men
on board, started to row in to the landing on the northern side of the
island.

My dad, of course, went over to the beach to meet these visitors, having
no idea who they might be, or what was their purpose in calling at the
Island. When the dory landed, and the crew disembarked there was one of
the three who needed no introduction; it was Air Man 1 Willis Langley.
One of the other two was F. O. Victor Burchill, of Jollimore, NS., the
other Air Mans name has gone from my memory.

Burchill advise my dad that they had come to install radio telephone
apparatus.at the light, and after the couple of bowes they had brought
in with them were unloaded, Willis and the other airman headed back out
to the vessel to bring in the last of the equipment. After all the gear
was transported to the station via hand cart, the installation began.

The transceiver itself was a Hallicrafters Sky Ranger, encased in a
beautiful walnut cabinet that could grace the finest of living rooms. It
was placed in the north end of the kitchen, beside the families RCA
cabinet model standard wave receiver, our link with the outside world.That same Sky Ranger was still standing in the same place on September
18, 1960, when I handed over to Keith Guptill, who won the the
competition over me through veterans preference.

The two six volt batteries tat powered the the R/T was placed in the
bottom of the cabinet, (they later found various other places to live)
and to keep them charged a Paris-Dunn wind charger was mounted on the
roof of the porch, with a rope leading to ground level to throw it out
of gear when the e batteries were fully charged.

My mom, who had quite a reputation as a duck stew maker, had in fact,
put on a stew early that morning, and when Willis heard this it was
music to his ears. The other airman was also from the shore and allowed
that duck stew was fine by him, too. I can't remember if Burchill ate
any of it or not, but Willis and his buddy sure did themselves proud.

The last item in the installation was the stringing of a long wire from
a pole mounted on the deck outside the lantern and running to another
pole which was mounted on the back of the western oil storage shed.
Burchill made two radio checks, one with the vessel , which was the
"Aristocrat," owned by Lawrence Sweeney, of Yarmouth, and called into
military service for the duration of the war, as many of the coasting
fleet were. The other check was with VAX; Canso Radio, which was to be
our contact point. The call sign for Country Island was Hilltop 235.

The master of the "Aristocrat" that day was Owen Creaser, of First South
Lun Co., and when Willis and I fished together in his "Gertie and Ola"
in the late fifties, Willis and Owen would get on the set, and rehash
old times when they were going around the coast, installing R/T's at the
lights. Owen was ten skipper of a big Lunenburger named "Frances
Geraldine"

Time takes it's toll. I met Willis in Sobeys, Antigonish, last Tuesday,
he was waiting in the food court for his care giver, Donna MacLeod. He
has recently gotten out of St. Marthas, and his sight is badly impaired.
Even with this, he is cheerful and seemingly happy, and still remembers
the duck stew we had that day in March, '43

It was good to be wired. And although the radio telephone was never used
on our station for it's intended purpose, the were some battery draining
conversations held with the operators at VAX, who would put on impromptu
concerts for our enjoyment, even if the sound was not CD quality. I
later had the pleasure of sailing shipmates with one of those operators,
whose name was Cassidy. Hailing from NB., he was Sparks on the ocean
going salvage tug "Irving Birch" (see photos/files)

The RCAF had the responsibility of imstalling the radios at the lights,
and in it's wisdom drew upon the young men entering the services from
the coastal villages, who were well versed in seamanship, skilful in the
handling of small craft and generally well suited to this job. They also
served.

Don