Tag Archives: marine radio operator

Retiring marine radio operator recalls 50 years of triumph and tragedy

His name may not be familiar. But Blair Duhamel’s voice is known by mariners across Eastern Canada. For 50 years, the Glace Bay man has worked as a marine radio operator for the Canadian Coast Guard. At his retirement celebration at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Westmount, N.S., colleagues paid tribute to a man who’s helped “countless” mariners to safety. “I was fresh out of high school and applying for anything I saw in the paper,” he said. ‘So I applied for this job, not knowing what it was. But I’m very glad I did.” When he started in the spring of 1968, at age 19, mariners used Morse code to communicate. >click to read<18:37