Comox Coast Guard. 100 years of Service to the Mariner

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1 Comox Coast Guard 100 years of Service to the Mariner

2 Jose Maria Narvaez In July of 1791 at the age of 23 and Captain of the Spanish Schooner, Santa Saturnina discovered Cape Lazo calling it Punta de Lazo de la Vega. It was so named because of the deceptive appearance of the cape: Lazo means delusion or snare in Spanish.

3 Guglielmo Marconi December 12 th 1901 Marconi transmitted the first radio signal across the Atlantic from Signal Hill, Newfoundland.

4 1906 Cecil Doutre, Dominion Superintendent of Wireless Stations for the Department of Marine and Fisheries, and Eddie Hughes, Project Engineer, sail on the Marine & Fisheries Vessel 'Quadra'. They make site selections for the new chain of wireless stations along the British Columbia west coast. Cape Lazo was one of the selected sites.

5 Lighthouse Board June 5 th 1907 A Meeting of the Lighthouse Board recommended to the Minister of Marine and Fisheries to establish wireless telegraph stations at Estevan Point, Pachena Point, Cape Lazo, Point Grey and Victoria

6 Land at Cape Lazo Purchased for $2,000 dollars

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8 February 1908 Operations at Cape Lazo began with Officer in Charge Charles Bradbury.

9 1908 Signal flags were issued to stations in 1908 to be flown during daylight hours to warn non-wireless equipped ships of impending danger.

10 March 1908 The Department had to pay $25.00 to replace a steer that had wandered on to the Cape Lazo property and fell to its death over the cliff. The station property was fenced shortly afterwards.

11 1909 Charles Bradbury in his office

12 Charles Bradbury s Home at Cape Lazo 1909

13 Interior of the first Cape Lazo Wireless Station 1909

14 A decree that all Officers In Charge must be married. The stations where a single man was in charge would be expected to give a commitment to be married within one year. This was later abandoned as too difficult to enforce. 1910

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16 Exterior of the new office at the Cape Lazo Wireless Station

17 Cape Lazo Wireless Station showing group in Walter Scott s automobile 1911

18 The Steamship Cottage City went aground in a snowstorm at Kahushan Point (near Oyster River) and was wrecked. The distress call was picked up by Cape Lazo and all on board were saved. It is rumoured that some of the passengers were, Dancing Girls bound for Skagway Alaska and that the consignment of liquor on board the ship added considerably to the gaiety of residents in the Campbell River area that winter. January 26 th 1911

19 April 14 th, 1912 Titanic Strikes an Iceberg off the Newfoundland Coast Titanic Wireless Radio Room.

20 Call Sign changed from SKD to VAC 1913 The Call Sign prefix letter, V was a commemoration of the death of Queen Victoria and was used as a prefix in many Commonwealth countries.

21 With Canada s entry into World War I members of the West Coast Radio Service were put into Naval uniform s and became warrant officers. 1914

22 Cape Lazo Marine Radio 1960

23 Operators Position Cape Lazo Marine Radio 1960

24 MT3 AM Transmitter Cape Lazo Marine Radio 1960

25 OIC Office showing CNT Teletype August 1960

26 Operating position showing S&T pancake High Frequency receivers, Collins HRO Floater receiver MT3 AM Transmitter controller, Lighthouse High Frequency Transmitter

27 Georgia Straits North view from Cliff at Cape Lazo 1960

28 South Facing view from Cape Lazo 1960

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30 Comox Coast Guard Radio Operations building outside Civilian Air Terminal Comox B.C.

31 Operations Building Comox Coast Guard Radio 1993

32 With the closure of Alert Bay CG Radio, Comox CG Radio's area of responsibility (AOR) and staff doubled, now encompassing all of Johnstone Strait, Queen Charlotte Strait and southern Queen Charlotte Sound. 1994

33 Comox Marine Communications and Traffic Services With the integration of Coast Guard Radio and Vessel Traffic Services this offered the alignment of the radio and traffic functions thus simplifying the operation for the Centre and its clients. Comox MCTS Centre became a fully integrated MCTS Centre on April 1, 1996.

34 Marine Communications and Traffic Services Mission Statement Our Mission To provide communications and traffic services for the marine community and for the benefit of the public at large to ensure: Safety of life at sea in response to international agreements Protection of the environment through traffic management Efficient movement of shipping Information for business and the national interest

35 Marine Communications and Traffic Services Program MCTS provides the initial response to ships in a distress situation, reduces the probability of ships being involved in collisions, groundings, and striking, and is a cornerstone in the marine information collection and dissemination infrastructure. The safety of ships at sea and on inland waters is highly dependent on efficient distress response, traffic regulating, safety communications, the broadcasts of weather and navigation warnings and the alerting network. The public at large benefits through the protection of water supplies, the marine ecosystem, and the littoral environment. The broad national interest is served through data provided to other government departments for better management of national programs.

36 Comox Marine Communications and Traffic Services Our Centre handles approximately 900 Marine Occurrences and 80,000 Vessel Traffic movements a year. Making Comox one of the busiest Centre s in Canada.