------------------------HMCS ST-STEPHEN---------------------

The article below was copied from the newspaper the Montreal 'HERALD'

as printed on Nov. 22,1947 and written by John Sexton

The Royal Canadian Navy Frigate HMCS St-Stephen sailed from Halifax to-day to take up position 'baker', midway between Labrador and the southern tip of Greenland, on the International Civil Aviation Organization's network of weather ships across the Atlantic.

Arrival of the St-Stephen at her post will bring to six the number of such stations which have been manned. Seven others were scheduled to begin operation before the end of this year but delays have set in and it is not known how much longer it will be before the entire pattern of 13 stations-ruled by ICAO as minimum required for safe ocean flights-are placed in service.

Stationed at the entrance to Davis Strait, the Canadian frigate will have similar duties to those performed by U.S Coast Guard cutter Bibb (Station Charlie) which recently rescued 69 persons from a transatlantic flying boat when it crashed near her position.

In addition to salvage and rescue operations when required the St-Stephen will issue, at frequent intervals daily, detailed reports on weather and ice floes in her area. For this purpose five civilian meteorological experts will be included in her personnel.

Situated on the path of the North Atlantic flying route, the vessel will also carry beacons from which passing planes can check their positions.

Charged with the welfare of the 77 Canadian seamen on the St-Stephen -including four Montrealers -are Commmanding Officer E.M. Chadwick(the Captain of the vessel) of Victoria and his executive Officer.

Theirs will be the task -not only of allocating duties on board -but also of providing diversions to discourage monotony and unhappiness among the men during the St-Stephen 21-day watches at her station.

Operated jointly by the United States and Canada, Station 'baker' will be manned alternately by the St-Stephen and a U.S. vessel not yet assigned. The latter would relieve the Canadian ship on Dec.13. Thus the St-Stephen crew will likely spend at least part of the Christmas holiday period at home.

Other stations currently in operations are two U.S. stations, two U.K. stations and one jointly operated by the Netherlands and Belgium. Recently the IACO Council directed letters to defaulting states, urging that they man their stations at the earliest possible date. Worst offender is the United States with five stations not yet in service. France has one station to install and the other is the joint responsibility of the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden.

The details on the above map (top center and enlarged below) are repeated here as follows:

The letters A to Z represents weather stations occupied by ships as described in the text above written in the Herald, theletters underlined are stations manned at the time the article was written. Each letter denotes a station by names taken from the call signs, for instance A for 'Alpha' , B for 'Baker' ( thestation manned by the St-Stephen or a U.S., ship, 'C' for Charlie and so on ,,.

The map shows part of the North Altantic ocean

--------------+-------------------

The photo reproduced below shows the pictures of crew members from the province of Quebec, 4 are from Montreal ( 'am the one bottom right)and at that particular time my rank was Stoker 1st class.

Back to Fred's Home Page