Radio Officer Paul du Mesnil - Last Civilian Canadian Ship's Radio Officer

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Radio Officer Paul du Mesnil (onboard "CNAV QUEST/CZDO" - they took away his 500 kHz transmitter in mid life refit shipyard but gave him many HF transmitters. He still kept a 500 kHz watch until he walked out of the R/R door on his last day in 2008. I personally know how excellent a 500 kHz watch he keeps. When I came back to SS KING/WAKL one day I called him on 500 kHz from the dock in Sewaren, NJ - my then wife told me his wife, Paula was preparing to divorce him and that she had secreted thousands of dollars into her bank account. I told him on 512 kHz - it was one of the most difficult QTC I ever sent.

Paul du Mesnil was the last civilian Canadian ship’s radio officer. His home was at Waterloo, Quebec in the eastern townships very close to the Vermont and New York borders. He is completely bilingual, French and English which is a big asset in Canada today. Paul graduated from what today is Institut Maritime du Quebec in 1967. He also graduated from the College of Technology in Hull, United Kingdom in 1972 and holds a first-class certificate of proficiency in radio.

In 1975 Paul graduated from the Transport Canada Training Institute on Heron Road, Ottawa the year before this training institute moved to Cornwall, Ontario. Paul operated four Canadian coast stations; Vancouver, B.C., call sign VAI in 1974, Prince Rupert, B.C., call sign VAJ from 1975 to 1976, Grindstone Magdalene Islands, Quebec call sign VCN in 1981 and Halifax, Nova Scotia, call sign VCS from 1977 to 1982. He received a temporary transfer from VCS to VCN.

In addition to these coast stations Paul sailed as radio officer in 25 ships and sailed repeatedly in three of those 25 ships; FERBECcall sign VCPZ, LADY FRANKLIN call sign VOCP and QUEST call sign CZDO.

Paul was stating that from the French Antarctic base Dumont-d’Urville call sign FJY3 situated almost directly South, five days sailing from Hobart in rare good weather of Tasmania, i.e., at latitude 66S, he could contact Halifax VCS daily in the evening ship’s time after working all day at discharging cargo when the entire crew, except Captain, Chief Engineer and cook participated. He was never out of contact with VCS – always in Morse of course.

In fact, on a few occasions he heard the VCS signal simultaneously on 6, 8, 12 and 16mHz, absolutely mindboggling from exactly halfway around the globe at that time of the evening. There was 12-hours difference in the time. He always gave VCS a call whether he had traffic for VCS or not, just to “give them a thrill” because it was the longest contact possible from VCS. The operators all liked to experience this; they told him so when he came back to Canada. Paul was sailing in LADY FRANKLIN with call sign VOCP. He had that wonderful Danish Sailor gear or radio station.

From the Canadian Arctic sailing in CFAV QUEST with call sign CZDO he was not so lucky. He could not hear the Halifax stations VCS or the naval station CFH. He could not hear VCS or CFH from about mid-way off Baffin Island up. He did not know why that would be since he had no problems from 66 degrees south. But he could not reach the arctic circle on this side of the equator. The time of the year may have had something to do with it.

He sailed on the Antarctic Coast even further West than the French base as they did two Australian bases at the bottom of the Indian Ocean from December to mid-March two years in a row 1982-1984.

He did the Canadian Arctic and Greenland in August and September 1997 and 1998.

Another thing he noticed but has nothing to do with the polar region propagation was from the mid 1980’s, 25mHz (27017kHz) for Oostende, Belgium call sign OST, and to a certain degree, 22mHz, these bands became almost unusable. He was always told about the 11-year cycle but this time these bands did not return.

Too bad, as he used 22mHz extensively when he spent 3-years in the Far-East and Middle East early to mid 1970’s. This always worked great for him especially when communicating with San Francisco, California, call sign KPH from the Western Pacific or from the Red Sea to the Chinese Coast. He also used it a lot when on trips from Canada/USA to Brazil in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Paul claims the communications with Halifax VCS (44 28 20N 063 37 16W) and Awarua, New Zealand call sign ZLB (46 30 28S 168 22 21E) were amazing. He considered it his greatest achievement as a radio officer with the power of continuous wave Morse code in high frequency radio. He feels some of the guys and gals at Halifax VCS were happy to say that they had achieved the longest contact possible on the airwaves on this planet.

These are the ships Paul sailed in:

UVQI BUKHTARMA November-December 1967 Great Lakes Both Russian R.O.’s did not speak English

ZIOX CABAHAWK December 1967 – February 1968 Montreal to Vietnam ammo for U.S. Army

CGDG CSS HUDSON Caribbean Winter/Spring 1968

CGKP FORT FRANCES Naval Auxiliary Summer 1968 Grand Banks

CGTJ SACKVILLE Caribbean North West North Atlantic Newfoundland Summer Fall 1968

CZFT ST. CHARLES North West Atlantic Spring 1968

CGQL RIVERTON naval tug, civilian crew, Nova Scotia Coastal

GHYX GYPSUM PRINCE U.S. Eastern Seaboard Caribbean Gulf of Mexico

DLHK WESER ISLE CP Ships container ship United Kingdom Canada

VCXL QUEBEC Canada South America

HPFC VEMA Columbia University Western Pacific Sea of Japan June – September 1971

VRFR TAIPOOSEK General Cargo Passenger Ship Far East Red Sea 1971-April 1972

MACE TAIPOOSHAN Passenger Ship regular run Hong Kong – Singapore - Penang

ZEKS WEST BREEZE General Cargo Ship Southeast Asia – Japan June 1972 August 1973

VGBX ONTARIO delivery job Long Beach to Toronto

VCLV FORT CHAMBLY Cargo Ship Brazil to Florida

CGCV TUPPER Icebreaker Northumberland Strait-Miramichi River

VCPZ FERBEC Large bulk carrier Brazil December 1978 to March 1980

GUQT GYPSUM KING Nova Scotia Eastern Seaboard Relief Trip

GXOL/VCSZ CAVALLO Delivery job November-December 1980

CGBV DAWSON Relief job March – May 1981

VOCP LADY FRANKLIN Antarctic operations and Ethiopian famine relief August 1982 to June 1984 and February 1985 to April 1985

CZDW BLUETHROAT Eastern Seaboard Caribbean Bermuda torpedo recovery August 1984 to March 1987

CYWK ENDEAVOUR relief ship for QUEST Nova Scotia January 1997 to July 1998

CZDO QUEST Atlantic Arctic United Kingdom Mediterranean Caribbean April 1987 to January 1997 and October 1999 to June 2008
CZDO QUEST

Paul makes Windsor, Nova Scotia his home and since he retired, he has taken up bus driving for something to do. He drives mainly the senior citizens of Windsor here, there and everywhere. He has driven for the Annapolis School Board, Kings Transit and Windsor Senior Citizen Bus Society.

Our Irish friend Dermot Cruise took over the radio officer position in GYPSUM PRINCE when Paul resigned. Dermot went on to sail in many ships after GYPSUM PRINCE. When Dermot retired, he also drove bus. These are the only former radio officers to drive bus that I know. Dermot drove school kids in the winter, at Thunder Bay, Ontario and drove senior citizens in the summer, or as Dermot called them the dear little old darlings. Dermot was 5-months older than I and passed away in 2022 before he was able to return back home to Ireland to live with a niece. Dermot was a bachelor and phoned me one time and told me he heard a commotion in the back of the school bus. He pulled over and went back to see what was going on. Good Lord, the little girls were showing the little boys their panties. What does one do in a case like that? Reprinted with permission from "Radio History Short Stories" by R/O Spud Roscoe available from Friesen Press https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000359067676/Spurgeon-G.-Roscoe-Radio-History-Short-Stories

Photos: R/O Paul DuMesnil on "CNAV QUEST/CZDO"