Make Waves

The Make Waves memorial was unveiled on October 17, 2020. The life-sized bronze statue is of Fern Blodgett Sunde - the first woman to work as a wireless radio operator. The statute of Fern is stepping forward with one foot emerging from an impressionistic wave, but she is also looking back, with her hand just grazing the top of the wave. Forward is her persistence in breaking barriers – looking back is in remembrance.

A relief is sculpted in the wave, depicting Canada's role in the Battle of the Atlantic. Designed to seem as if the viewer is looking through a window, out to sea. The planes and ships are lined to Canada’s central role in the Battle of the Atlantic. The passenger ship represents SS Athenia which was torpedoed on September 3, 1939, by a German U-boat. One hundred and twelve civilians were killed. Hannah Baird, a stewardess on Athenia was considered Canadian Merchant Navy’s first fatality of the Second World War. The skies are heavy and dark with lightly outlined U-boats on the horizon to symbolize the sinister danger that claimed thousands upon thousands of Allied lives.

Also in the relief is an amphibious aircraft the Canso. Canadian built Cansos served with 11 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, operating on both coasts. The Hawker Hurricane, known for its role in the Battle of Britain, also fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. A significant manufacturer was Canadian Car and Foundry, located in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Chief Engineer, the renowned Elsie MacGill became known as the Queen of the Hurricanes.

A river-class frigate built in Canada is represented by HMCS Waskesiu. The first of its class commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, and the first Canadian frigate to sink a U-boat. The Flower-class corvette represents HMCS Cobourg which was named after the Town of Cobourg. Canada built over one hundred corvettes.

The headphones slung around Fern's neck symbolize her work and profession. Her clothing is typical of what she wore as she carried out her duties aboard Mosdale. A pin on her lapel commemorates the sisterhood of wireless radio operators - "Sparks" who followed her to sea. The wave she touches symbolizes the wave of social change that came for Canadian women in the storm of war. The wave also represents radio waves, and the waves of the sea as a battlefield. 

Lightly traced on Fern's finger is a wedding ring in remembrance of the young Norwegian Captain who had no idea he was hiring his future wife. Together, they faced danger and hardship at sea, and did everything they could to support the Allies in the fight against the Nazis. Fern was only in her forties when Gerner died suddenly. She told her daughters that there was only one true love for her and never remarried.

Fern Blodgett Sunde grew up in Cobourg and dreamt of becoming a sailor. She learned only boys could work at sea, so when the Second World War began she applied to become a wireless radio operator. The first two schools turned her down because she was a woman, but she persisted and a third school, the Radio College of Canada, accepted her.

Even with a Second Class Wireless Operator’s certificate in hand, Canadian and British navies would not hire her because she was a woman. Mosdale, a Norwegian merchant marine vessel, was in desperate need of a wireless operator and granted her an interview as F. Blodgett, not realizing F. stood for Fern. She travelled to Montreal where Gerner Sunde, Norwegian captain of Mosdale – and Fern’s future husband – was shocked to see his applicant was a woman. Since Norway had no rule against women working aboard ships, Fern was hired.

Fern crossed the Atlantic ocean 78 times on Mosdale, avoiding submarines, receiving and sending coded messages and delivering desperately needed supplies. In 1943, Fern was honoured by King Haakon VII of Norway and became the first women to be awarded the Norwegian War Medal for courage and contribution to the Allied war effort.

In 1952, Fern left the sea to raise her two daughters. She opened the door to a sisterhood of Sparks, mostly Canadian and Scandinavian women, working on Norwegian merchant ships until technology replaced the wireless radio. Of the ships mentioned in the Admiralty’s 1941 letter of praise, only Mosdale survived the war.

The memorial was commissioned by the Cobourg Museum Foundation and funded in part by Veterans Affairs Canada. Charitable foundations, local businesses and individuals, as well as the Town of Cobourg, made financial and in-kind contributions. The statue was commissioned to honour the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic and was unveiled during Women's History Month in Canada.

Tyler Fauvelle’s work includes more than a dozen public art bronze monuments, four of which are military-themed: Afghanistan Monument, Francis Pegahmagabow Monument and Charles Henry Byce Memorial.

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