I arrived from Germany as an immigrant in St. John, NB, on December 23, 1951 on a sponsorship from the Canadian Government. I had traveled with my sister and a friend of mine from our home town of Bremen, Germany which was the port from which the "Beaverbrea" sailed. We had left Bremen on December 7th, so it was a rather long trip with a violent storm on the North Atlantic which had 90% of the passengers seasick for at least five days. On the ship we had met the Chief Steward, Marcel le Hobler Duplessis (sp?) of Montreal who upon arrival in St. John introduced us to a nice family and some other friends. One of these friends worked as a secretary at Fraser Brace Terminal Constructors for a John LaFrance, Superintendent. While I was still living in the Immigration Building in St. John, I did obtain an interview with John LaFrance, and he hired me to to to the initial construction Camp N-29 (located at Saglek Labrador). I was only three weeks in Canada!.
I was on a flight to Goose Bay, with another young man, Noel LeBlanc, and upon trying to land in Goose Bay during a blizzard that had developed on short notice, the plane made a crash landing resulting in a great deal of damage to the aircraft. The pilot was injured and the cargo of flour, steel, and other items which were located in the main part of the cabin along with two seats for passengers were scattered about. This was the first flight in my life.
Two days later we continued on another flight for N-29 and arrived there safely. Getting out of the plane, several Eskimoes were looking at my European luggage, and also pushed my sleeve up to look at my watch as asked "How much"? Coming from a civilized life in my hometown of Bremen and just having left there a short time ago it certainly was a cultural shock, of sorts.
In January 1952, N-29 consisted of about twenty buildings, and about thirty workers. This was the initial construction camp for the purpose of building a road from the bay to the future permanent radar station site which was about twelve road miles away.
I had been hired as a hut orderly, which didn't mean much to me - only just getting used to the English language, but the salary was good and I knew I would improve myself as time went on. The first job as a hut orderly at the camp was to fill the individual oil heating stives in the buildings with oil every day. Not difficult or hard, but boring at times. Later I worked in the office as time checker and payroll clerk and also was in charge of Commissary sales. We had a little on-site store where the construction workers could buy cigarettes, candy and certain Arctic type clothing. There was no money available at the site. All purchases were deducted from a persons salary, which was good since this eliminated gambling. Alcoholic beverages were not available - which was another good point since we had several rough characters amongst our workers.
I was also somewhat involved in the entertainment program which really consisted only of a 16mm Sound Projector and films which were either part of the flown in goods or at times were dropped by DC-3's in strong bags into the deep snow, when landing was not possible.
Other entertainment was ping pong, card playing, and listening to a great short wave radio. My personal entertainment at first was learning, or refreshing my English, where I had some great help from a fellow named Dan Morton, who was a blacksmith/welder - a buy man with great patience and a soft heart and to me, a typical Canadian.
During my stay at the camp there were no military personnel present and our Site Superintendent, Ray Talbot, was a civilian, just like everyone else.
I once visited the Eskimo village at Hebron with Gordon Eastman, Jack Thomas and a couple of others to get a flavour of Eskimo life and it proved to be an interesting trip. Carcases of seals were all over the place with huskies chewing on them, and the old missionary buildings, although in decay, were an interesting place to visit.
Our Construction Engineer, Don Cornell - from Montreal, was a great fisherman and after the snow had disappeared in June-July 1952, he went fishing many times and supplied the dining rooms with fresh fish on many occasions. Life was rough in many ways, but the friendship of many of the workers I will never forget.
Toward the end of my stay there a new Office Manager by the name of Bud Branscombe arrived and also a new clerk by the name of Guy Nadeau arrived to replace Gordon Eastman.
I was supposed to leave in July 1952, but I stayed until August and finally departed by seaplane - again for Goose Bay, and from there with the old trusted DC-3 back to Moncton NB this time, where my family had settled.
Updated: February 6, 2003