Photographs - Battle of the Atlantic, Communications Equipment, Seamen on Skeena, Wrens, St. Hyacinthe

Figure 1.  Equipment in the far end of Skeena’s wireless office.  A medium frequency transmitter sits at left with its coils above.  An HRO receiver is at right.

Figure 2.  CM-11 transmitter-receiver.

Figure 3.  Marconi MSL-5 receiver used in Skeena for receiving messages broadcast from shore stations on 105 or 107 Kc/s.

Figure 4.  FR-12 transmitter-receiver, used largely on the convoy wave of 2410 Kc/s for radio-telephone communication between escorts.

Figure 5.  FMB, similar to the FM-12 direction finding receiver used, for example, to take bearings of shore-station beacons or to take bearings of the transmissions of aircraft to home them to the convoy.

Figure 6.  PV500 transmitter used for transmitting messages ship-to-shore on such frequencies as:  4740, 6300, 8290 and 12685 using morse.  

Figure 7.  Royal Navy submarine off the coast of Nova Scotia

Figure 8.  Riley leaning on iced-up A gun aboard Skeena, December 1942.

Figure 9.  Leading Telegraphist Fred Ross, Skeena.  The photo was taken using sunlight shining through the port hole.

Figure 10.  Telegraphist Tom Clegg, Skeena.

Figure 11.  Coders Bruce Witherspoon and Ritchie Seath, Skeena 1943.  Ritchie lost his life when Skeena went on the rocks at Iceland in October 1944.

Figure 12.  Telegraphist George Godsall, Skeena 1943.

Figure 13.  Telegraphists Allan Riley and Frank Hibbs, Skeena, Oct 1942.

Figure 14.  Wrens on a signal platform at St. Hyacinthe:  Marion Roberts, Vancouver BC, uses a signal projector, while Elizabeth Wickham, Westmount QC, makes a signal with semaphore flags, and Marion Smith, Ottawa ON, writes down a message.

Figure 15.  St. Hyacinthe W/T students operate a portable radiotelephone set.  L to R:  Bruce Stevenson, Kimberley BC, J.R. Walker, Toronto ON, and Charles Cannon, Windsor ON.

Figure 16.  Wireless Telegraphy students copying plain language morse of SBX (Standard Buzzer Exercise) at St. Hyacinthe.

Figure 17.  Ratings at St. Hyacinthe are restoring books to the shelves in the Confidential Book office.

Figure 18.  Wrens wireless telegraphy class copying morse on typewriters, obviously a much better method than pushing a pencil.

Figure 19.  Visual signaling classes on the parade square at St. Hyacinthe.  The Wrens and ratings are working in pairs:  one reading the flashing light or semaphore signals while the other writes them down.

Figure 20.  The ship’s company doubling to “divisions” at St. Hyacinthe.  Wrens can be seen streaming from behind the building at the top.

Figure 21.  Wren “Jackie” Lapointe, of Montreal, operating a High Frequency Direction Finding set at HMCS Caverdale near Monction NB.  Wren Lapointe appears to be concentrating on the cursor and adjusting a control to bring in a better signal.  The microphone at right is connected to “ops”.