Aside from speeches and the sounds of Canada's Air Command Band, the brief ceremony was characteristically quiet.

For 30 years, Canadian Forces Station Bermuda was there not to talk, but to listen, and the closure of Daniel's Head has brought more attention than its existence ever did.

No Canadian Prime Minister or Defence Minister ever visited the site, and there was no Canadian political representation at yesterday's closure.

"We here at this station are a very passive sight,'' said Major Samuel Gillespie, commanding officer at Daniel's Head since 1990. "It's hard to find Daniel's Head if you're not looking for it.'' But behind the scenes, the 88 military personnel have made their contributions to the Island and forged strong ties with the Somerset area.

"We are unique as far as Canadian Forces Stations in our close proximity to the Royal Navy, the US Navy, and the Bermuda Regiment,'' Major Gillespie said.

"Professionally, that has been a tremendous experience to be able to meet and deal with these people on a regular basis.'' The base has also had a strong relationship with the west-end Bermuda Police, he said.

Daniel's Head, which employed 23 Bermudian civilians, organised the annual Maple Leaf Run and was involved in the Special Olympics Torch Run.

The base, which cost the Canadian Government about $6.5 million last year to operate, was the victim of the thaw in US-Soviet relations and budget pressures back in Canada.

"Born in the Cold War, we and our sister stations have together made our own small contribution to world peace,'' Major Gillespie said at yesterday's closure ceremony attended by about 300 people. "But as that Cold War ended, we also suffered the fate that resulted from the financial battle to win that war.'' Opened in 1963 to fill a gap in high frequency radio direction finding coverage, the listening post is not needed like it once was.

The loss of one base in the Atlantic Directions Finding Network "does not make the whole network obsolete or irrelevant,'' Major Gillespie said. "The question then becomes one of degree of accuracy.

"There will be with the loss of any station some loss in the degree of accuracy.'' Bermuda's Harbour Radio will also miss Daniel's Head for its signal-locating role in search and rescue operations, a spokesman said. Now, Harbour Radio will have to contact other stations for help with medium and high-frequency radio signals. "It just might not be as accurate,'' the spokesman said.

Lieut. Michael A. Ruymar (Ret'd), the first commanding officer of what was then called Canadian Naval Radio Station Bermuda at Daniel's Head, has loads of stories from the early days.

He had to oust a Cub pack from a building on the site he needed for storage, and remembers grazing cows chewing through lines that ran to the radio station.

Mr. Ruymar, now 66, arrived with four men and no transportation, since the vehicles that arrived were damaged in a rough crossing. Until a walk-in refrigerator arrived, "we missed a lot of meals,'' relying on borrowed jeeps to get to the US Naval Air Station to eat.

But he is proud of what he helped accomplish at the station. "We started operating on the fourth of July, and by the end of August we were tops,'' he said.

As for the closure, "I'm pouting,'' he said. "It's part of me.'' Many mementos from the base will be sent back to museums in Canada, but some will form a final gift to Bermuda -- at the Maritime Museum in Dockyard.

FINAL CEREMONY -- The Governor of Bermuda Lord Waddington alights from his Daimler for ceremonies marking the closure of the Canadian Forces Station.