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)

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1967 - Interfering With Interference