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THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
“Dad made
me feel like I
was breaching
national security …
He just about had
a fi t.”
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 2: LEARNING THE HARD WAY
Th e summer job fulfi lled every one of Keith’s greatest wishes. Not only
was he around planes all day every day at the Boeing plant, his job as a
general gopher entitled him to a coveted yellow button, #6625, a pass
that allowed Keith access to every part of the plant.
Th e colour-coded button system at Boeing ensured that people didn’t
stray into areas where they shouldn’t be. With the war in full force,
security was an important issue and the proper colour of badge
needed to be worn in plain sight at all times. A curious boy with a
love of planes certainly wouldn’t have been permitted to satisfy his
every wandering whim unchecked. But as an offi cial gopher with the
near-magical yellow button, Keith had what amounted to an all-access
pass. “I was able to see everything that was going on around the plant
and I soaked up how the planes were produced, start to fi nish. It was
amazing. I loved that kind of thing.”
Once, Keith found out the hard way that all-access can mean too
much access for an over-eager kid. While delivering paperwork on his
rounds, he discovered a couple of plane blueprints lying out in the
open. Th e sight of all the aircraft dimensions was irresistible. He took a
quick look around, rolled the paper up and smuggled the plans home,
excited about being able to build a miniature version based on real
specifi cations. It was a dream come true. He quickly discovered that
the dream was too good. When his father realized that his son was in
possession of classifi ed plans, he panicked. “Dad made me feel like I
was breaching national security bringing these home. He just about
had a fi t,” says Keith. Reg ordered his son to pack the plans back up
and return them to exactly where he’d found them. Keith, terrifi ed that
he was going to end up in jail at 16, did as he was told. But not before
he sketched out all the plans he could. He built a model based on his
drawings, secretly wondering exactly how much trouble he’d be in if
anyone found out about the source of his information.
At the end of his summer vacation, heading back to school at Magee
seemed like punishment to Keith. Spending endless hours in the
classroom being fed information from books paled in comparison
with the hands-on learning at Boeing and the thrill of proximity to
such important and exciting work. It didn’t take long before the lure of
the plant proved irresistible. Keith decided that he couldn’t wait until
the following summer to get back to the planes. Th e war eff ort was
growing and Keith believed deeply in the importance of the aircraft
he was helping to build. No more balsa wood facsimiles for Keith; he
was determined to build real planes out of aluminum. It was model
airplane building writ large.
BOEING IN B.C.
While many think of Boeing as a uniquely Seatt le-area company, the airplane
manufacturers have a strong connection with B.C.’s Lower Mainland. The
Canadian division was started when the company purchased the Hoff ar-
Beeching shipyard in Coal Harbour in 1927. The location produced yachts,
fi shing boats and ferries, and when it reopened as a Boeing operation in 1929,
it added Model 40A mailplanes to its product lines. It became Boeing’s fi rst
seaplane manufacturing and test site. The company founder, William Boeing,
took advantage of the yacht-building facilities, commissioning his own 125foot
yacht, the Taconite, in 1930. The original boat still operates under the
same name as a charter yacht in Vancouver.
In 1939, with the start of World War II, Boeing began work on a huge factory,
later known as Plant 3, on Sea Island in Richmond. During the war, Boeing
Aircraft of Canada built 362 PBY Catalina fl ying boats and amphibians
designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego and 16 British-designed
Blackburn Shark torpedo aircraft. The midsections of nearly a thousand
B-29 bombers were also built in Richmond, before being shipped to Renton,
Washington, for completion.
The plant on Sea Island started with just 175 workers when it opened, but
the orders prompted by the war swelled that number to over 7,000 by
1945. As soon as victory was declared against Japan in August, the plant
was closed, ending an interesting chapter in Vancouver’s wartime history
and leaving the 7,000 workers unemployed. The Coal Harbour manufacturing
facility was also closed and was sold to the BC Packers by November 1945.
Keith quit school and returned to Boeing, this time taking a full-time
position riveting Catalina wings in Ship 33. No longer a gopher, he lost
his yellow button and was more restricted in his movements around
the plant. On the upside, however, he knew planes inside and out, a
great benefi t when you are assembling them. His is work was impressive
and he was soon recognized as one of the
fastest and most accurate riveters in the
shop, no mean feat since there were three
shift s and dozens of riveters working on
the wings. Sometimes, though, pride in his
speed and effi ciency got him into trouble.
Riveting wasn’t a solitary job. Each riveter
was partnered up with a bucker. A bucker
was a person who manoeuvred a metal bar
that had to be held behind the rivets as they
were driven into the metal of the plane parts.
Since Keith was working on wings, his bucker
had to climb inside the wing to get access to
the rivet ends. “Th e bucker had to be a slim gal
FROM TOP: A Catalina at the
Boeing Sea Island plant,
1942. Boeing employees and
offi cials gather to watch the
fi rst bomber roll out of the Sea
Island plant in 1942.
Workers assembling a PBY airplane
at Boeing’s Sea Island plant.
Photos from top: City of Vancouver Archives, cva 1184-1185, cva 1184-1148 and
cva 1184-1166, Jack Lindsay.
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