Continental code

First World War Audio Archive

Continental code

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Transcript

I found it difficult to get up speed because I wasn’t musical,

Hill 62 Memorial Belgium.

you see. When you have your – are you familiar with Morse code -

Courtrai Memorial Belgium.

A,B,C? We used the Continental code which was different from the

Le Quesnel Memorial Belgium.

American code, which you used in telegraph stations, you see,

Gueudecourt Memorial France.

on the railways. I think there was eleven letters that were

Dury Memorial France.

different in the Continental code that we used and the dots and

Monchy Memorial France.

dashes that were used for some of these letters were long drawn

Passchendaele Memorial Belgium.

out compared to the American code. And they weren’t as speedy,

Masnières memorial France.

you couldn’t develop as much speed as you could with the

Bourion Wood Memorial France.

American code. An example of that would be the letter “C” in the

Courcelette Memorial France.

Continental code. In the code we used, it was dash dot dash dot for C. Dah du dah du. But in the American code, it was two dots,

Beaumont-Hamel Memorial France.

space and dot; do du duh, you see. Well, when you're developing

St. Julien Memorial Belgium.

speed... I mean, I tried to develop speed but I had difficulty because you didn’t have time to count dots and dashes.

Canadian National Vimy Memorial France.

You had to go with the rhythm, you see.

Description

Mr. MacKay describes his personal difficulty learning to key Morse Code, and compares the Continental to the faster American code.

Donald Finlay MacKay

Donald MacKay was born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, on April 2, 1897. His father was a pre-Riel homesteader, but Mr. MacKay chose to teach, at age 17, in a one room school. In March 1917, he enlisted in the 249th Battalion at Regina, Saskatchewan. He was sent to Valcartier, Quebec, where he qualified for air force service, but opted to stay in the army. Mr. MacKay was ready to ship out to England, but an epidemic on board saw him quarantined at Camp Aldershot, Nova Scotia. There he took officer training, qualifying as Sergeant. Once assigned to the 46th Battalion, Mr. MacKay served as a Signaller, primarily at Valenciennes. There is no record of his post-service experience. At the time of his interview, Mr. MacKay lived in Wolsely, Saskatchewan.

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