Saturday's big unveiling of the statue honouring Fern Blodgett Sunde in Victoria Park is an important event, Cobourg Mayor John Henderson said at council this week, but a by-invitation one.
“We must operate within the numbers provided by the health unit, and the special ceremony is by invite only to be within the perimeter fencing,” Henderson said.
Still, he hopes everyone will be watching with the help of Graham Beer – a former Mayor For The Day who now runs his own company Cobourg Media. Beer will be covering the event live, with Fern Blodgett Sunde: The First Woman Wireless Radio Operator At Sea special presentation beginning at 1:15 p.m. via Facebook and YouTube as well as at cobourgmedia.ca/fernblodgettsunde.
Growing up in Cobourg, young Fern admired the ships and Great Lakes steamers she watched on Lake Ontario. Even though she knew a naval career was for boys, she dreamt of a career at sea.
World War II broke out when she was 21 years old, and there was an urgent need for Wireless Radio Operators (known as Sparks) to send and decode messages onboard Allied merchant vessels. Though she was studying nursing and commerce in Toronto, Blodgett knew this was what she wanted to do. Two radio schools turned her down, but she persisted and became the first Canadian woman to earn a Second Class Wireless Operator's certificate.
Capt. Gerner Sunde, the Norwegian captain of the M/S Mosdale, was shocked to see a woman applicant, but then again Norway had no rule against a female radio operator. She fought off seasickness through 78 crossings between Canada and Britain. A year after joining the crew, she married the captain.
Their service was recognized in 1943, when King Haakon of Norway presented both with the Norwegian War Medal. Fern Blodgett Sunde was the first woman to receive that honour.
The Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) was a bitter power struggle between the Allied and Axis powers, making the Atlantic Ocean a battlefield. The many dangers it contained – German U-boats, enemy aircraft, harsh storms, floating mines – sank 3,500 Allied vessels and resulted in the loss of 40,000 seamen.
The statue created by Canadian artist Tyler Fauvelle will be unveiled in Cobourg during a month that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Battle of the Atlantic and Women's History Month in Canada.
The unveiling ceremony will include remarks from H. Col. Helen Vari, Ambassador of Norway to Canada, His Excellency Jon Elvedal Fredriksen, Commander Stephanie Belanger, Dr. Richard Gimblett, Rear Admiral Jennifer Bennett, Major-General Guy Chapdelaine, Canadian Armed Forces Chaplain, and other local guests and committee members.
