Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-12-28


A dozen men In the wilderness up
beyond the gateway of the st. Law
renee where the shreds Of civilization
fray out against the barrier OF the
great North link up the world with
the wilderness of the Atlantic and the
wilds of the Arctic regions. They do
1t with wireless key and the mes
sages they receive and send pass over
barren wastes where no man lives and
land wires have never been strung.
A dozen there are who serve as
operators; others of the repairing
crew and the supplying department
come and go, but these dozen men are
year after year held practically 2ris-
oners on the bald cliffs of Labrador
and Newfoundland before the key OF
the wireless. They send through the
air the tales of 6hips that come and
60, reports that may interest ST.
Johns or Montreal shipping ex-
changes; relay from the one to the
other the meagre commercial mes
sages that must pass from dealer to
fisherman; send down to the land
telegraphs the occasional news OF
shipwrecks and sea sufferings that
find way into the papers. AT Battle
Harbor Gordon Sprackling. young
Nova Scotian, is the Marconi opera
tor, and Leonard Stephenson his en-
gineer Compared with some of their
fellows Sprackling and Stephenson
are fortunate in the environment of
a metropolis.
But the wireless men are far from
the maddening crowd even at that.
To reach the wireless station requires
a nice training in alpine climbing. a
sure foot and an undisturbed sense of
summit of the cliff Is the wireless hut
and in this hut less than two months
ago events occurred which need re-
cording. They should be recorded be-
cause they measure the stamina of
the men who work the wireless in
this cherries country.
The polar ship Roosevelt worked
her way into the narrow harbor one
sunny morning, and while the town
seethed with excitement Commander
Peary climbed the crag to the wire
less station to Interview SpracSlin. He
send to the world below his account
OF the discovery of the north pole.
He believed that he could put it on
the land wire at Chateau Bay down
the coast, but the wireless man at
Indian Harbor had told him that the
Dominion government had abandoned
that land wire since last he had come
down from the North and he must
use the wireless. Could the wireless
do It?
spracklin said that il could. Then
he called the MAI at Belle Isle over
the strait a hundred miles away, and
told him TO pass the word along the
line that there was big work ahead.
The word was passed down to the Of
fee of the management in Ottawa.
Suracklin worked twenty hours out OF
every twenty-four for FIVE days alone
and unaided save for the relief his
engineer gave him while he was eat
irg his meals. Sprackiin and all the
others pounded the key during those
i've days. not knowing at what min
ute the spark would fail because OF
the strain pnt upon the apparatus.
Spracklin would send two. three or
four thousand words. then stop. Each
succeeding station below would re
csive. thee forward this amount, and
not until 1t had all been put upon the
cables at Cape Ray would the next
installment be launched
Here is how Peary's story was zig
Jagged down the coast through the
air to the cable end. From Battle
Harbor It went southeassward across
the Straits OF Belle Isle TO the sta
ton situated on the northern tip oil
the island OF that name. Belle Isle
rslayed to Point Amour. back TO ths