All West Coast Por

Know P.M.L. 16

*

OU have probably heard the
Y odd tale about the sailor on

horseback: this is a story of his
opposite number — the Mountie on
shipboard. For in British Columbia
the policeman is apt to be a sailor.

Where there are no roads or rail-
ways, and the only rational way from
one community to another is by sea,
the Mountie has had to take to the
water along with rest of the popula-
tion—and all levity aside, I doubt if
there is any more magnificent example
of police mobility, or downright ser-
vice to an isolated people, than that
which is centred in the Police Motor
Launch Number 16—or P.M.L. 16—
which is constantly on duty along the
West Coast of Vancouver Island.

The trim grey lines of this craft
are known from one end of the
West Coast to another—for she calls
wherever there is a human being—and
sometimes where there is only thought
to be one. The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police concept of maintain-
ing law and order along these un-
frequented ways means a great deal
more than making an arrest and
bringing a criminal to justice. It

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TWENTY-THIRD EDITION

By CeEcIL MAIDEN

*

Keeping a prospective eye on everybody along hundceds of miles of the west coast in addition
to carrying out manifold law enforcement duties ts Sgt. Fred Brooksbank, seen here on the
deck of the famous P.M.L. 16. A master mariner, he has a wide knowledge af the bays, chan-
nels, currents and reefs of the west coast. He went to sea at I7 and for periods served in fish-

packers and in Alaska passenger ships.

This picture was taken prior to R.C.M.P. taking

over policing of B.C.

means keeping a protective eye on
everybody (and at times being able to
see around corners with that eye, too)!

HARD TO FIND

For all her familiarity with the
people on the coast, the P.M.L. 16
is as hard to find as some of the
fugitives she has to follow. I had

ample proof of her constant activity
by simply trying to be at the same
place at the same time. And I dis-
covered that attempting to arrive at a
given port on the same day as the
P.M.L. 16 requires a touch of magic

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anyway. She has always just left—or
will arrive tomorrow.

After explaining my mission to the
R.C.M.P. authorities in Port Alberni,
I was permitted to try contact by
radio. First she was at Tahsis. Then
she was reported at Zeballos. Then she
was known to be racing south through
a storm to Ucluelet. But I got there to
find that she had been called into
Tofino en route. I began to believe
that like the “Flying Dutchman,” she

was nothing but an externalized guilty

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Page Fifty-one