A Tribute to Fern Blodgett Sunde (1918-1991): First Female Radio Operator (“Sparks”) to Go to Sea

A Tribute to Fern Blodgett Sunde (1918-1991): First female radio operator (“Sparks”) to go to sea... Debra Dupuis classes and earn a Professional Radio In 2020, the Cobourg Museum Foundation Operator’s Certificate. She and a committee of volunteers will was turned down by the commemorate Fern Blodgett Sunde, the first couple of schools. first female wireless radio operator As she said to Olive Carroll (“Sparks”) at sea. She served during the (who worked as a deep Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945), making sea Sparks after the war): numerous North Atlantic crossings “Two [schools] said they aboard a Norwegian merchant vessel, the had never had a woman M/S Mosdale. It was incredibly dangerous student and they didn’t – the Mosdale, a fruit carrier, was one of intend to start now.” six sister ships to start out in 1940. (Canadians at War 1939- Only the Mosdale survived the war. 1945, Vol. 1, Reader’s A bronze statue and plaque in remembrance Digest, 1969) of Fern, and of all Canadians who served Fern was finally accepted at sea during the Battle, will be erected at at a third school. Almost the Cobourg, Ontario waterfront. Sculptor 18 months later, she Tyler Fauvelle, whose work includes more became the first Canadian than a dozen public monuments in woman to earn a Second Ontario, three of which are military Class Wireless Operator’s commemorations, will create the statue of certificate. Fern. The unveiling ceremony will take place on October 17, 2020. Next year Now, she needed a ship. marks the 75th anniversary of the end of As fate would have it, a WWII, and of the Battle of the Atlantic. young seagoing radio October is Women’s History Month in operator suddenly quit, Canada. figuring he’d be safer on We’d be so grateful if readers contributed the Great Lakes. That left Fern Blodgett Sunde: the first female wireless to the commemoration. Details are Captain Gerner Sunde of the M/S Mosdale, radio operator (“Sparks”) at sea. provided at the end of this article. a Norwegian merchant ship, stuck at port The sea as battlefield held all kinds of in Montreal. His ship was fully-loaded and danger – U-boats, surface raiders, Fern Blodgett Sunde Commemoration he needed to head for England. An urgent storms, fog and naval mines. On top of it call went out, and that call reached Fern’s How did a young Canadian find herself all, Fern was miserably seasick. the only woman aboard an Allied merchant school. She received her certificate the ship, operating a wireless radio on the same day her Principal asked if she was Bets were probably circulating all over the high seas during the Battle of the Atlantic? serious about going to sea – Friday, the ship – it was doubtful she’d even make the Good question, considering that this was 13th day of June, 1941. return voyage. more than 40 years before the Royal Imagine the look on Captain Sunde’s face Fern didn’t quit. She put a bucket nearby, Canadian Navy permitted women to serve when he realized that his new hire, stayed at her post, and did her job. at sea, and a half-century before Britain’s “F. Blodgett”, was a young woman. Royal Navy allowed it. Sparks were always men, so he was She wasn’t oblivious to the danger: “I wondered whether I would be a woman Fern Alberta Blodgett was born in Regina, unsure whether she could work aboard or a wireless operator if we were Saskatchewan and grew up in Cobourg, ship. Besides, Canada didn’t allow it, and torpedoed. As a woman, I could be Ontario. She often sat by the waterfront, that rule also applied to Allied ships in expected to head for the lifeboats. As a watching the Great Lakes steamers go by. Canadian ports. Strangely, regulations in wireless operator, as the ship’s “Sparks”, Fern dreamed of a career at sea, but that Norway didn’t have a thing to say about it. I’d be expected to remain on duty. dream made no sense at all for a girl born Initially, the Admiralty said no. Eventually, I decided I’d be a wireless operator.” at the end of the Great War. Adventures at it was left up to Captain Sunde. (RD, 1969) sea were for boys only, and that was that. The next thing Fern knew, she was headed Fern’s family were not pleased when she She started to train as a nurse in 1936, for deep sea. trained as an operator. Now, they really but quickly figured out that it wasn’t her What those first days must have been like! had something to worry about – the Battle calling. She completed Business School Fern was the only woman aboard a 3,000 of the Atlantic. in 1939 and worked as a stenographer in ton ship. She was just shy of her 23rd Toronto. birthday, had never been to sea, and was The Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) was the fierce struggle between the Allied and When Canada entered the war in 1939, fresh out of radio school. She received a Axis powers for control of sea lanes and Fern was determined to find a seafaring few hours’ orientation, and then was left vital supply lines to Britain. It was the way to serve her country. Learning that alone in the radio room, with instructions longest continuous campaign of WWII – there was a shortage of seagoing wireless written in languages she didn’t know. tonnage had to get through, the Allies had operators, Fern decided to take evening One mistake could be deadly. to be sustained in the fight. The Canadian Amateur: September-October 2019 1 When Nazi Germany invaded neutral In 1942, Fern Norway in 1940, most of Norway’s Blodgett married her merchant fleet was at sea. Although the Captain, Gerner Germans ordered them home, not one Sunde, in St. John, turned back. The King and his New Brunswick. government went into exile. From there, No time for a they formed Nortraship (the Norwegian honeymoon – Shipping and Trade Mission), and they went right back arranged with Britain to turn over all the to sea, in convoy. free ships to the service of the Allies. Fern was one of many Canadians and Haakon VII of Britons to sail the North Atlantic with Norway visited Fern Nortraship. From 1940 until the end of the and Gerner in 1943, war, Norway lost over 3,600 merchant presenting them with mariners and roughly half of its fleet. awards for their wartime service. The Sparks (named after spark-gap Fern was the first transmitters) maintained the links woman to receive the between the ships and land-based Norwegian War stations. Operators provided aids to Medal. navigation, weather information and radio-direction finding, as well as visual Fern’s remarkable signalling. They usually handled clerical story became an and purser functions. unexpected beacon, leading to a small If their ship was under attack, the Sparks sisterhood of Sparks at sea. Twenty-one King Haakon VII of Norway presenting Fern with an award for her wartime service. had to get rid of the code books, no Canadian women followed in her matter what – they could not fall into footsteps, serving as operators on The following books are fascinating enemy hands. It was their job to transmit Norwegian merchant ships during the war. accounts of life at sea for the female the ship’s name and position in the event Several more women (mainly Canadian Sparks, both during and after WWII. of a submarine sighting, torpedo attack, and Norwegian) pursued careers as Some of them are out of print but you can surface raid or other emergency. Sparks after WWII ended, until new find used copies online by doing a search. technology in the 1980s and early 1990s Their main responsibility was to listen – replaced wireless radios. References signals were in Continuous Wave (CW), keyed in Morse Code. The operators had Fern and her Captain braved the North “Deep Sea ‘Sparks’: A Canadian Girl in to decode messages to see whether they Atlantic together until the end of the war, the Norwegian Merchant Navy”, Olive J. applied to their ship or convoy. The and for a brief time during its aftermath. Carroll, Cordillera Publishing Company, formats changed often. A missed or Their daughter, Fern Sunde Sletten, says Vancouver, 1992. Olive Carroll ( Roeckner) incorrectly-decoded message could lead her mother continued to work at sea, on has worked to tell Canadians the story of the ship to disaster. The emergency and off, until 1952, when she left blue Fern Blodgett Sunde and the female frequency commanded their utmost water to raise a family and work in her Sparks at sea, through her books and attention. beautiful garden. When Gerner Sunde articles. died suddenly at sea, in January 1962, The Mosdale was never torpedoed, but “Quite the Gal!”, Betty Lake Ottersen and Fern stayed in Norway, the only home her there were many close calls. It was Helen Lake Westall, Wireless Publishing, two daughters knew. She never remarried. chased by submarines, and sometimes Peterborough, 2002 Her daughter, Fern, said that whenever separated from convoys during violent she and her sister, Solveig Ann, tried to The following book is about the “Lucky” storms. Navigating through naval mines in raise the subject with their mother, Fern Mosdale , but it is out of print and there is an uncharted minefield was particularly Sunde only would say: “There will always no English translation available: harrowing. When the Axis powers stepped just be one true love for me.” up their attacks, Fern heard frequent “Lykkelige Mosdale; sagaen om et skip; distress calls.

Load more