Ship details:
Builder Burrard Dry Dock Co. Ltd., North Vancouver
Laid down 3 September 1940
Launched 23 January 1941
Commissioned 1 July 1941
Decommissioned 6 October 1945
Identification Pennant number: J162
Honours and awards Atlantic 1944, Normandy 1944[1]
Fate Sold 1947 for scrap
Class and type Bangor-class minesweeper
Displacement 672 long tons (683 t)
Length 180 ft (54.9 m) oa
Beam 28 ft 6 in (8.7 m)
Draught 9 ft 9 in (3.0 m)
Propulsion 2 Admiralty 3-drum water tube boilers, 2 shafts, vertical triple-expansion reciprocating engines, 2,400 ihp (1,790 kW)
Speed 16.5 knots (31 km/h)
Upon arrival at Plymouth in March 1944, Wasaga was assigned to 32nd Minesweeping Flotilla for minesweeping duties associated with the invasion of Normandy. The minesweeper later transferred to the all-Canadian 31st Minesweeping Flotilla. During the invasion, Wasaga and her fellow minesweepers swept and marked channels through the German minefields leading into the invasion beaches in the American sector. The 31st Minesweeping Flotilla swept channel 3 on 6 June, completing the task unmolested by the Germans. Wasaga remained with the unit until 30 September 1944, when the minesweeper returned to Canada for a refit at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. [Source: Wikipedia]
Offshore radio station: During the Second World War, Canadian Jimmy Tapp (1918 – 2004) served as a young naval officer aboard the minesweeper HMCS Wasaga, stationed in the English Channel off Plymouth. It was there, on an otherwise uneventful day, that an idea took shape.
On one side, there was a stack of old records, donated by the Red Cross to the ship’s crew. On the other, the ship’s radio equipment—including a microphone—proved irresistible to Tapp.
Meanwhile, in London, Private Lee Payne—formerly a presenter at Montreal’s radio station CJAD, during the 1960s with CFRA—was simulating hockey broadcasts for homesick Montrealers stationed in the heart of wartime Britain.
Though Tapp and Payne had never met, they shared a common goal: to bring a touch of nostalgia to Canada’s soldiers, airmen, and sailors caught up in the vastness of global conflict.
The requests started rolling in. With all the necessary elements in place, Tapp set to work, creating a simulated radio programme—unknowingly becoming one of the first radio “pirates”. And he did it on the high seas.
He named his imaginary broadcast location The Normandie Roof, “high above the metropolis of Montreal,” painting vivid (if entirely fictional) scenes of civilian life and the experiences of servicemen fortunate enough to be on leave in the city.
Before long, requests began pouring in from other Canadian ships anchored near Wasaga. Crews wanted simulated broadcasts from Toronto, Hamilton, Vancouver, and beyond.
Recognising he had something special, Tapp decided to take it a step further. He enlisted the ship’s cook as his agent, effectively making the station commercial. When off duty, the cook would visit nearby ships to collect requests. The fee? One English pound (worth about $4.47 at the time)—or, more often, payment in cigarettes, cheese, canned fruit, and other goods.
After the war, Tapp returned to his hometown and became a CBC announcer, broadcasting from none other than The Normandie Roof—this time, the real one.
In 1966-67, he hosted CBC’s highly successful Flashback, a Toronto-based television show. Tapp still had devoted fans—including Commander J.J. Green of North Vancouver, who fondly remembered Tapp’s pirate radio station, the first of its kind on the Atlantic.
Source:
Location: English Channel off Plymouth
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMCS_Wasaga_(J162).jpg