IN THE FROZEN NORTH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 3 January 1928, Page 7

IN THE FROZEN NORTH.

LONELY WIRELESS STATION. THE ROOK OF BELLE ISLE. Jack Broom an, a 19-year-old Canadian Government wireless operator, is home oil furlough after a year’s service in the loneliest, regular wireless station in Canada, perhaps in the world. It is on Belle Isle in the Straits of Belle Isle. It is nearby the track of hundreds of ocean steamers which in summer enter the St. Lawrence, but only two boats a year actually call at Belle Tele, one in October and one in July. The Strait, of Belle Isle at this point is more than 30 miles wide. Belle Isle is in the middle. Fifteen miles south lies the desolate coast of the northeasterly tip of Newfoundland; fifteen miles north the; more desolate coast of Labrador. Belle hsle itself is wind miles I ’r-n,r and three wide. It is a huge barvon rock. There is not a. tree on the island. No grass, no vegetation of anv kind except, moss and berry bushes which find a lodgement in the rocks. There are thirteen people on the island. Two lighthousekeepers.. with two assistants each, and two wives of the lighthousekeepers, four wireless operators and a cook- The lighthouse employees are all natives of Newfound, ’and ' One of the keepers has been on Belle Isle for 17 years with only two visits to the mainland in that time; the other 15 rears. The wireless operators do not stay long They were all revived this rear, the chief operator, Mr. W. ]>. F. Johnson, from Niagara Falls, has been on for fifteen months. The other three operators. Messrs. W. O. Wilson, E. Davev, and Jack Brooman were only on a year. £ That is long enough. I’ll remember it to my dying day.” Mr, Brooman said. During the winter from October to May, -m ship comes near the iis’iand. The ice blocks the whole sea up in' veryrough hummocks, and breaks up quite often making travel to the mainland impossible. From May to September fishermen sometimes call and bring us mail if we are lucky. “The storms of the island are fierce. Tliev’re something wicked. The wind gets up a velocity of 100 to 110 miles per hour, and you have to crawl across if you want to get from one house to the other. Tn the winter the snow drifts to great depths, Inst winter one drif near the station being 60ft. deep. It packs hard and we take the mainmutes across. Six of these dogs, Newfoundland breed with some husky in them. are on the island and, hitched to sleighs, f-urnish some sport for winter days. . . ‘•'ln the winter the station is used as the only means of communication between Newfoundland and Labrador. The cables laid in the summer are usually gashed *>ut by spring, and tlie number- of small stations on the Labrador coast operated by the. Marconi Company are in contact with us all the time.' All year we are in constant touch with St. Johns. Newfoundland station VAR. with Greenland. OXF. and this year we worked Revckjavick. Iceland, us well as a ship 1000 miles out at sea.” Tliou'di only boasting 19 years, one :>f which was spent in the solitude of Belle Isle. Jack Broonan has seen a good deal of the world. As a fully nualified operator he has served on lightships, ice patrol, and various Atlantic- seaboard stations.