The Fishermen’s Navy

John Ward West didn’t serve in the Armed Forces during WWII but he served his country.

Four young men from the Egmont area enlisted in the services when war broke out, including Stan Silvey, Ben Griffith, Ben Vaughan and Pop’s younger brother, Robin West. Pop was a commercial fisherman, so was exempt from serving. He was a very important part of the “food chain” and chose to carry on supplying the country with salmon. He was able to request a deferrment and his brother and brother-in-law both discouraged him from enlisting by saying, “You stay to look after your family. We are single and will go fight for you as well as ourselves and our country”. Fortunately they all came home.

The Federal Government did not own enough ships to patrol the West Coast and required all fishermen (especially those fishing the West Coast of Vancouver Island) to keep their eyes and ears open at all times. Pop had to swear an oath of secrecy in the Customs Office. He had to paint a 4 or 5 digit registration number on the roof of his boat to be visible by airplanes. He and other fishermen weren’t to discuss amongst themselves or others, anything they heard on their radiophones or saw on the ocean, but they were required to report any unusual activity to the Navy. The Navy conscripted many local commercial fishing boats and they were unofficially called the “Fishermen’s Navy”.

The fishermen were also required to report to a Navy ship stationed outside Vancouver Harbour when they were heading in to sell their catch to the fish buyers in Coal Harbour. This Navy Ship was a conscripted commercial seine boat, registered and painted grey. The boat was stationed near Point Atkinson. It was not achored, just adrift and sometimes had to hail or chase down boats that didn’t comply. Pop knew the regulation, but some fishermen were not aware or ignored the law. He knew one captain who neglected to check in and the Navy ship fired a shot across the bow of his boat! He never made that mistake again.

I asked Pop if he ever saw anything unusual while fishing the West Coast. Not a thing, he said, but he did hear Estevan Point light house was shelled by the Japanese. His brother-in-law, Ernie Seaton was in the Navy, stationed in Esquimalt, working on a “conscripted” seine boat. He was on the ship that went to Estevan to check the damage. He said when they went ashore they found where the shells hit the ground, totally missing the Light House and did no damage. There was no evidence to directly link the shelling to the Japanese. The rumour mill suggested perhaps it wasn’t the enemy who fired on Estevan Point light house on the West Coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino, but was perhaps “friendly fire” Read the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
account of this and other incidents. Apparently there was much suppressing of information in order to avoid mass hysteria. This attack, or incident, certainly made everyone more aware of the potential threat to North America by the enemy.

Pop remembers huddling round the radio in the evenings hoping to hear the war news – even week old news was of great interest. He is amazed by the speed of internet, by the information we all have access to, by the fact I can take his photo with my digital camera then post it online in minutes, by the fact the world of internet users can communicate so quickly and easily (he’s 93 years, 5 months and 2 days young).

Let us all remember the Western world still has enemies and we do need to be on guard. We may feel safe and secure in our small world of affluence and freedom, but there are those that hate us and our way of life and wish to eradicate us.

“Lest We Forget”