SARNOFF and EINSTEIN

 

Bill Whelan

 

2026 01 26

Late in January of 1911 Captain Baxter Barbour, commanding the steamship Fogota, sighted a herd of seals, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, crossing Trinity Bay on their way north to give birth on the whelping ice, which was coming south to meet them.  Bowring’s steamship Prospero, Captain Abram Kean, made her final coastal trip of the season at about that time, an eventful run with winter storms and the temperature at –25^oF. St John’s harbor was frozen over, as were all small harbours to the north.      Coastal navigation ceased and ships were fitted out for the seal hunt. In most years this amounted to removing passenger accommodation, to make room to carry sealers and sealskins, and doing other things to protect the ships from the rough handling to be expected. This year, 1911, several ships were fitted with wireless. Job Brothers & Co. arranged with the Marconi Co. to install wireless in their sealing steamers Beothic and Neptune.  Bowring’s steamers Florizel and Eagle already had the system and Harvey’s fleet was also having it installed. All the larger ships would be able to communicate with each other and with St John’s. The Marconi Company in New York sent young David Sarnoff to St John’s to install wireless in Job’s vessels. David Sarnoff was a radio operator, a good one. Sarnoff’s father had died of tuberculosis on the East Side of New York after bringing his family to America from Russia, from a stetl in which the Jews lived a medieval existence. David Sarnoff needed advancement in the Marconi company, for the security that would bring his family. Sarnoff had made a good career choice. In Liverpool alone, 200 operators were needed. It was now compulsory for American and Italian passenger steamers to have the system. But David Sarnoff wanted more than just a job as a wireless operator, a Marconi-man. David Sarnoff came to St John’s and installed wireless in the steamers Beothic and Neptune. He went to the seal hunt as radio operator of the Beothic, 271 men, Captain George Barbour. Sarnoff came to have a deep respect for Captain Barbour, although the fact that the captain was illiterate seems to have bothered Sarnoff at first. Captain Barbour’s purpose was to find and kill many seals and carry them to St John’s. He could not navigate, in the Board of Trade meaning of the word. The Board of Trade issued Masters Certificates. Captain Barbour could not sign his name, could not do his sums. Captain Barbour was not a certified Master Mariner, yet his record as a seal killer was extraordinary. His men had no doubt at all. They said he knew every iceberg. Beothic left St John’s on the 12^th of March and made her way to the ice on the northeast approaches to the island, the Front. The sealing vessels sent their first marconigrams on the 16^th, reported the Free Press.  Sarnoff sent a message to Job’s and learned in their reply that Captain Barbour’s son, who was aboard the Beothic, was now the father of a healthy baby boy. When the younger Barbour left for the ice his wife was clearly near to giving birth.  This piece of wireless magic increased Sarnoff’s standing, already high. He was 20 years old. David Sarnoff killed a few seals. He was very unsure of himself on the ice, could not copy from icepan to icepan as did the sealers. Each sealer carried a gaff, a strong pole as tall as a man or taller, with a hook lashed to one end. This gaff was an essential tool, for balance on the ice, for killing seals.  Of the sealers aboard the Beothic Sarnoff said: I do not know of any race with such pronounced characteristics. Courageous almost to the point of folly, yet tender-hearted as children, uncultured and unlearned...yet they are strategists of the highest order in their chosen vocation. Some of Sarnoff’s wireless messages to St John’s went first to the wireless station at Belle Isle and were relayed to St John’s by Jack Daw, the Belle Isle radio operator. Wireless range was short. Relays were necessary. Now Jack Daw reported that his junior operator was in a bad way. The man had severe toothache, a badly infected jaw, could not eat. The only other people on Belle Isle were the lighthouse keeper, his assistant, and the keeper’s wife. The next supply vessel would reach Belle Isle in June, three months hence.  There were only two such visits each year. The infection, or starvation, might kill the junior operator. Beothic was then about 200 miles from Belle Isle. Dr Knight, aboard Beothic, gave advice by wireless, although this advice was of course limited. Sealing ships did not carry medical men, as a rule, but young Dr Knight was along for the adventure and the experience in his profession. Then came Sunday. Captain Barbour was rigorous in observing the laws of Newfoundland. He brought all to a complete halt. There was no sealing. He ordered all fires to be banked. There were religious services, closely attended. But David Sarnoff saw a family of hood seals nearby.  The seals seemed to be at play, in a domestic sort of way, although the male was a dangerous animal. Sarnoff was well aware of the hood seal’s teeth, which could certainly crush a man’s leg. With the Captain’s grudging permission, Sarnoff went overside with his little camera. He would need to be quite close to the seals to take a good picture. He soon had a photograph of mother and baby, but not of the Old Gent. In all innocence, Sarnoff thought he might lure the Old Gent closer, near enough for a good photograph, if he eased himself closer to the young baby. At this point there was a shouted warning from the ship. But it was the click of Sarnoff’s camera that set the male hood off. Sarnoff ran away but was no match for the hood in travel over ice. Sarnoff was near exhaustion, with the seal close behind him, when a single shot rang out from  Beothic. The seal fell dead. Shooting a seal on Sunday was a serious offence. In this case it was a question of saving Sarnoff’s life, for nothing short of a rifle shot would kill a hood seal. Sarnoff understood very well that he had gone too far, that he should not have put these men in a position in which they must break the law, and violate their own Sabbath principles, to save his life. The men never spoke of this again in Sarnoff’s presence. He knew what he had done. David Sarnoff had spent four years of his own young life in religious study: The Prophets in Hebrew and the Talmud in Aramaic. He learned them by heart, twelve hours a day, in poverty, in Russia. That was David Sarnoff’s childhood. Later in life he had a unique word that to him meant poverty. His word for poverty was Uzlian, the name of the little town of his childhood. Beothic was now about 75 miles from Belle Isle. Seals were scarce. It was time to return to St John’s. But now Sarnoff learned that the condition of the Belle Isle junior operator had deteriorated. The man was in a very bad way. He could not open his mouth, the abscess was so large. He was much wasted due to pain and lack of food. At Sarnoff’s persuasion and despite the financial loss that might result if  Beothic were jammed and delayed in reaching St John’s, Captain Barbour turned the vessel toward Belle Isle and came to a stop about 2 miles away from the lighthouse. Sarnoff and Dr Knight and the Captain’s son set out over the ice and then climbed 500 feet to the windswept lighthouse. The doctor made short work of the junior operator’s problem. He removed three teeth. Relief was immediate. Sarnoff asked about the only woman on Belle Isle. Then he saw her at a window. She was a tall striking woman one of the handsomest specimens of womanhood I have ever laid eyes on. She smiled and said a few words in French, inviting them into her home. But her husband would not have it. He ordered them out, telling them he would not permit his wife to communicate with strangers. Sarnoff and the doctor prepared to leave without making a fuss but Captain Barbour’s son was less willing.  Eventually they did leave, making their way carefully over the ice that covered Belle Isle. They slid along the ice with the aid of ropes that were stretched from building to building. Then they made their way down to the sea and across the ice to the Beothic. Beothic came into harbor at St John’s on Sunday, the 9^th of April, just short of one month after she left. The Free Press reported the arrival and the fact that Beothic’s men had killed 12 000 harp seals in one day. The Free Press printed the Beothic turnout:  young harps 33 384, young hoods 840, bedlamers 55, old harps 658, old hoods 830.  Total 35 767 seals.  624 tons.  $51193.48 gross. $50543.48 net.  270 men@$62.17. Capt.Barbour $2021.73. The Beothic turnout was second best that year. Sarnoff returned to New York, disappointing Jewish families of St John’s who saw him as an excellent marriage candidate. It seems Sarnoff declined an offer of marriage from one of the seven Jewish families of St John’s. Perhaps it is to be regretted that David Sarnoff did not marry one of the Goldstone daughters of St John’s. Morris and Joseph Goldstone, though Jewish, had attended a Church of England school in St John’s and had done well academically and athletically. But no, Sarnoff carried on to New York and his career in technology. The Goldstones continued in business in St John’s, primarily as a department store, The London, New York and Paris. This was a success, with Joseph Goldstone, a St John’s fixture, welcoming the people of that city as they passed into his substantial premises. Sarnoff went on in the world of wireless. One of his posts was at a high floor of the Wanamaker Department Store in New York City, where he and other Marconi operators followed radio traffic. Then came the Titanic disaster. As the world knows, lookout Fred Fleet saw the iceberg and reported that sighting to the bridge. But collision occurred. A stream of wireless messages went out from the Titanic’s radio operator as the Titanic filled. Sarnoff would later circulate the story that he was the first operator to receive a Titanic S.O.S. signal via wireless. That was a sleeveen story, perhaps meant to further his career. But David Sarnoff did not need sleeveen stories to rise to be president of Radio Corporation of America. That was RCA Victor, famous in its time, don’t you know? In 1921 David Sarnoff invited Albert Einstein and other scientists to inspect the RCA radio station in New Jersey. See photo. In science, Albert Einstein played at The Big Table. As a pioneer of mass communication, David Sarnoff also played at The Big Table. That is Sarnoff in the front row, with Albert Einstein and other players. From here I need help and correction. Yes, the Goldstones conducted a thriving business on Water Street as the London, New York & Paris. Another Water Street business was Wilansky and Sons  (when did this begin?)  conducted by Harry Wilansky (Naftali Herzl). Now, the Jewish community of St John’s was not large. It had no Rabbi. It appears that Harry Wilansky became qualified to perform certain limited rabbinical functions. He was entitled to charge modest fees for this work. He sent some of that money to Israel, though he kept that a secret. Life went on. Harry Wilansky’s son, Douglas, did well at school and became a physician, going eventually into Nuclear Medicine (The Big Table). He took his family (year?) to visit Israel. The story is that as they passed through the entry process, a man stepped forward and asked whether he was Dr Douglas Wilansky, son of Harry Wilansky of St John’s? Yes, of course. Then the man told the doctor that Israel remembered his father’s contributions.