Erik Piip.
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Here is an e-mail I received from Erik Piip recently (June 8th 2014)
Hi Bruce, Today I was in a kind of reminiscing mode. I was writing to an old friend, Judith Wadson, as I only just now discovered that her mother, had died a couple of years back. My brother had found a letter that Judith had written to my mother back in '12, while sorting through her things. She died late last year. She had a great innings, died in her sleep, after a lovely evening with my brother and her closest friends. To quote my brother, "kinda spooky". As I was telling Judith a little about why I ended up helping out at the summer camp her mum ran (Camp Juniper) I was explaining why I couldn't get a normal summer job (I was a "resident guest"), I wandered back to the sofarbda.com/ to refer her to it... Last 3 or 4 years (Summers) I worked on Sir Horace Lamb. Anyway, afterwards I was looking at some of the updates, and other materials when I came access your entries about Frank Watlington. I never quite connected the dots about him being a radio amateur. I have many memories of him operating HF at the SOFAR station, but that was on the military and marine nets. Even talking to SHL at one point. I wandered into amateur radio in late '70, after my dad gave me a copy of the ARRL handbook, and ultimately got my US novice ticket in '71. (it was what geeks did then ;-) It was almost a year later that he told me that he had been a ham before the war, call sign: ES5E.... you could have blown me over with a feather. It was one of the few things he told me about his "pre-war" life. I'm still licensed, although not very active (I should pull my finger out and put up an antenna). My current call signs are ES5RV (Estonia), and KA1RV (u.s) I was quite active the last 2 years we were in Bermuda, (1972 - 73) operating as WA1PND/VP9, a mouthful especially in CW. Anyway, I digress. Reading the CQ-VHF article you posted, I was reminded about a "mystery" 1/4 audio tape that has been following me around since "forever"..... I now have some context... 
Unfortunately I don't have a machine to play it on, however I'm sure you
may be interested in the content. If you don't have access to a tape player, I'll ask some friends here and try to make a MP3 (Or series of them) from the tape, that you could post. If any of Frank's family is still on the island, and you are in touch with them, I'm happy to put it into the post so you can pass it on. I've been the custodian for long enough, and if it can given to some-one closer to the source, so much the better. I'll be happy with the MP3.. :-) I also have come across copies of some of the Technical Reports that my dad wrote. eg: 
These are pretty dry reading. ;-) I think there may be some duplicates, I'll look. Are you interested in any of these?
Well, I better get this into the e-post before it becomes too long, and gets rejected as too big. Say hi to the island from me. ~erik piip Posted June 2014 |
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Erik Piip has a couple of stories to tell... (e-mail Feb 17th 2014)
I'm not sure you would remember me, I'm Ants Piip's older son. I came by your
web site via by brother's younger son, who sent me a copy of the Polaris flag picture,
that has my dad in in it.
I was in Bermuda 2 years ago, and stopped by the site in St Davids. The pictures you
have are as good as the ones I took at the time. Kind of sad to see it all gone and forgotten.
I have the photo's that Ants took during our time in Bermuda (1960-1973). There
are several of Sir Horace Lamb, in various parts of the Caribbean. I also have a number
of pictures from the time I worked on her during my Summer vacations. It was the only
place I could "officially work" on the Island, due to our "Resident guest" status. I
have many fond memory of those summers, and have more than one story to tell.
I'll keep it to two:
We were supposed to sail about 1500, and Smiler was no-where to be found. We could
not leave without the boson. He finally showed up, several hours later, much the worse
for wear. Clem was livid!... Anyway next morning Smiler was hanging over the side of
Sir Horace, sick as a dog. This was the only time I ever saw his sick. As we all know,
Sir Horace was far from a stable platform, even in calm weather.
The other story I have is on one of the early trips I took with S.H.L., I was in the wheel
house. As with lots of boats of that vintage, there was lots of brass. The Brass polish
that we had (I'm certain it was some WW-II surplus supply) had a particularly awful
smell when taken by it-self. In Addition to the bridge's brass work, there was
the tail end of a 4 inch brash shell casing, converted into a massive ashtray!
(Every-one smoked other than myself!) So, the Bass polish, mixed with
stale cigaret ash, combined with the mild sea swell, we were rolling about ±40deg,
the bridge was being thrown about massively.... As you can only imagine,
my guts could cope with so much.... The rest is history.... It was much
more pleasant one deck up, on the look-out, where there was no polish, and lots
of fresh air!
Anyway...
You wanted some pictures. I had a quick look over the collection, and pulled
those that I though would be of interest. I think one of them my be of
Grace. I have no memories of Erline, however I do have several memories of
days spent on the barge, (No pictures) scraping rust, and applying Red Lead
paint onto everything. That was hot work...!
Erik Piip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik also tells me that the Piip family left Bermuda in 1973, and went to Australia, where Ants and his wife worked at the federal government agency for scientific research. Ants passed away in 1986, and his wife in 2013. Erik stayed in Australia until 1989, when ... "I moved to Boston with Digital Equipment, for whom I was working for in Australia. 13 years later, Digital was gone, and I was tired of life in the U.S., so I took the opportunity to move to Estonia, and now live in the house my Dad grew up in. Kind of a multi-generation round trip. We recovered the house when the USSR collapsed, and Estonia re-gained its independence. It is kind of odd, my my farther never talked about his life before the war. In fact, I have only one real memory of him talking about the period. Everything I know about it I have found out 2nd hand. For example, when I earned my Amateur Radio license, it was almost a year before he told me that he had been a "ham" in Estonia before the war. There is a concrete foundation beside the house with his initials in it, and the remains of what looks like a length of rail, that must have been his tower. One of the local "old timers" gave me an article he wrote in the the school newspaper about Amateur radio, and it has a picture of him in his "room" which is now my younger sons room. "
Posted Feb 2014
Erik Piip has a couple of stories to tell... (e-mail Feb 17th 2014)
I'm not sure you would remember me, I'm Ants Piip's older son. I came by your
web site via by brother's younger son, who sent me a copy of the Polaris flag picture,
that has my dad in in it.
I was in Bermuda 2 years ago, and stopped by the site in St Davids. The pictures you
have are as good as the ones I took at the time. Kind of sad to see it all gone and forgotten.
I have the photo's that Ants took during our time in Bermuda (1960-1973). There
are several of Sir Horace Lamb, in various parts of the Caribbean. I also have a number
of pictures from the time I worked on her during my Summer vacations. It was the only
place I could "officially work" on the Island, due to our "Resident guest" status. I
have many fond memory of those summers, and have more than one story to tell.
I'll keep it to two:
We were supposed to sail about 1500, and Smiler was no-where to be found. We could
not leave without the boson. He finally showed up, several hours later, much the worse
for wear. Clem was livid!... Anyway next morning Smiler was hanging over the side of
Sir Horace, sick as a dog. This was the only time I ever saw his sick. As we all know,
Sir Horace was far from a stable platform, even in calm weather.
The other story I have is on one of the early trips I took with S.H.L., I was in the wheel
house. As with lots of boats of that vintage, there was lots of brass. The Brass polish
that we had (I'm certain it was some WW-II surplus supply) had a particularly awful
smell when taken by it-self. In Addition to the bridge's brass work, there was
the tail end of a 4 inch brash shell casing, converted into a massive ashtray!
(Every-one smoked other than myself!) So, the Bass polish, mixed with
stale cigaret ash, combined with the mild sea swell, we were rolling about ±40deg,
the bridge was being thrown about massively.... As you can only imagine,
my guts could cope with so much.... The rest is history.... It was much
more pleasant one deck up, on the look-out, where there was no polish, and lots
of fresh air!
Anyway...
You wanted some pictures. I had a quick look over the collection, and pulled
those that I though would be of interest. I think one of them my be of
Grace. I have no memories of Erline, however I do have several memories of
days spent on the barge, (No pictures) scraping rust, and applying Red Lead
paint onto everything. That was hot work...!
Erik Piip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik also tells me that the Piip family left Bermuda in 1973, and went to Australia, where Ants and his wife worked at the federal government agency for scientific research. Ants passed away in 1986, and his wife in 2013. Erik stayed in Australia until 1989, when ... "I moved to Boston with Digital Equipment, for whom I was working for in Australia. 13 years later, Digital was gone, and I was tired of life in the U.S., so I took the opportunity to move to Estonia, and now live in the house my Dad grew up in. Kind of a multi-generation round trip. We recovered the house when the USSR collapsed, and Estonia re-gained its independence. It is kind of odd, my my farther never talked about his life before the war. In fact, I have only one real memory of him talking about the period. Everything I know about it I have found out 2nd hand. For example, when I earned my Amateur Radio license, it was almost a year before he told me that he had been a "ham" in Estonia before the war. There is a concrete foundation beside the house with his initials in it, and the remains of what looks like a length of rail, that must have been his tower. One of the local "old timers" gave me an article he wrote in the the school newspaper about Amateur radio, and it has a picture of him in his "room" which is now my younger sons room. "
Posted Feb 2014