Ralph Bunt

 

Joined the Department of Marine and Fisheries in 1925.

Entré au ministère de la Marine et des Pêcheries en 1925.

 

 

Ralph Bunt

Mr. and Mrs. Bunt and W.A. Caton

 

A man who started out as a ship's radio operator and spent 37 years "interfering with interference" as a radio inspector has retired from the Department of Transport. For Ralph Bunt, the early part of his government service was high adventure.

 

In 1926 he was radio operator aboard a revenue cutter engaged in trying to break up the lucrative, private foreign aid program of supplying rum to thirsty, prohibition-bound Americans. There were storms which he recalls with no pleasure-one blanketed everything so heavily with ice that he barely managed to get a radio signal which helped the skipper find his bearings.

 

Nor did he get much pleasure when the customs officers seized $40,000 in contrabrand rum hidden under a dock: the entire load "except for a few bottles that may have been quietly set aside" was poured down the drain.

 

Next, he went as a radio operator with the Hudson Straits expedition which in 1927 began a study of ice formation and other conditions in the area.

 

(Transport Canada Vol 19 No 2 Mar-Apr 1968)

 

Links   -   Liens

1967 - Interfering With Interference