Receiving Distress Calls

Interviewer: During the time that you were with the Empress of Canada, the merchant vessels were taking a tremendous toll in the North Atlantic, you men would be aware of this? I was aware of it. I'll tell you the truth, even Churchill disguised that he wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, he must help it, he says two and a half million tons of our ship, have been lost in the last ten... it wasn't two and a half, it was three and a half million. They all tried to pretend that no ships were going down, but I was a wireless operator, I knew they were going down and not only that they were being attacked, you know, with surface ships. And I know one case there was a ship said a big attack by the surface ship and then a little while later said, oh a mistake we're not being attacked. But it was a different hand writing that I could tell, so I wrote to the Bridge, you know, we had a fleet, a fleet of fleet ships with us. I said "He'll speak in tact, the other cancellation was put in by another person," yeah, I saw that. Interviewer: So you suspect that was done by the Germans? Oh yes. The Germans had taken over and said it was a mistake, there's no.... They had SSS for submarine, RRR for radar you see. And it came out RRR radar and then he said, "Oh, cancel the radar," but the German fellow did that.

Mr. Haegert describes what it was like in the North Atlantic when receiving distress calls from other ships.

Joseph Haegert

Joseph Haegert was born in Bethel Mission, India. He was part of a military family of noble descent. His father was Prussian and moved the family to England, where he trained as a doctor in London. His father died when Haegert was three years old so Haegert had to be entirely self-sufficient throughout his life. He was taken out of school at the age of thirteen and put to work. At the age of sixteen, Haegert took a class in wireless telegraphy and was employed as a wireless operator and purser on the Gray, a supply ship. In 1918, he taught himself Latin. He wanted to go to Queens University so he learned German as well. He went to UBC, but was penniless and got traumatic fever, which lasted six months. After that he decided to go back to sea where he rejoined his original ship as a wireless operator. His brother, Sam, was killed in World War One in the Battle of the Somme. He wanted to be a field medic and stretcher bearer in World War One, but was too young. He celebrated the end of the war in Victoria, BC. He came to Canada on the Corinthian and married a Jewish lady. He worked as a civilian for the Western Air Command and with the Empress Line during the 1920s and 1930s as a wireless operator.