Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

40 YEARS AGO

NOVEMBER 19, 1981

FALLS RADIO OPERATOR TOURS WORLD BY SHIP

Dewy Ross Duffel has seen more in the last 15 years than many of us will probably see in a lifetime. Duffel works as a radio operator on ocean-going ships.

Duffel, 39, was born in Missoula, but spent his early childhood on the family ranch at the mouth of Swamp Creek. That ranch was submerged when Noxon Rapids Reservoir was filled.

Duffel went to school in Noxon, Trout Creek and Thompson Falls. After a year at Montana State University, he went to Spokane Community College for three years of electronic training. From there he went to Seattle to work in a medical machinery shop. Fifteen months later he had the chance to go to sea as a radio operator on a cruise ship sailing to the South Seas. He has never looked back.

Duffel spends four to five months a year at sea. He normally works on cargo ships sailing from the West Coast to Hawaii or to Asia. He has also sailed to South America, New Zealand, Italy and Egypt. Once his ship sailed from Chicago, unloaded flour in Morocco, and then unloaded heavy machinery and castings in Russia.

When in foreign ports, Duffel likes to spend his time walking about the city or taking one or two-day tours, depending on how much free time the crew has. He said that he has had very few problems in foreign ports. He has found people all over the world to be friendly.

Not every trip has been without moments of trepidation, however. Duffel’s ship was fired upon in the river channel between Vung Tau and Saigon. One crew member was killed. On another trip, Duffel’s ship wallowed in a typhoon for several days between Okinawa and Japan. During the storm there was a fire on board and some 40-foot telephone poles broke loose and rolled over the side. The crew had breakfast in the eye of the storm, but he added that the seas were still very rough.

When the ship finally arrived in port, they discovered that the wind and rain had acted as a sandblaster and had changed the color of one side of the ship’s smokestack.

When not at sea, Duffel spends some of his time on his acreage on the Blue Slide overlooking the Clark Fork River. He gardens, has a piano tuning and repair hobby and was hurrying to complete a workshop before going to sea again. He is an amateur astrologist and uses his home computer in his astrological work as well as to make “Computer music.”

Duffel is tied to the sea for his livelihood, but admits his heart is not there. He said his “natural home instinct” is in the mountains but acknowledged that he is restless by nature.

WESTERN SATELLITE TO INSTALL CABLE TV IN TF

Lawrence J. McCarthy and Associates have sold their interest in a proposed Cable TV system for Thompson Falls to Western Satellite, Inc., and the latter is expected to begin work soon to install the system in Thompson Falls.

“We knew how badly many people in Thompson Falls wanted Cable TV so we actively solicited an operator who would build the plant and serve Thompson Falls adequately,” McCarthy and Keith W. Pilgeram said. “Last Wednesday we entered into an agreement with Western Satellite, Inc. whereby we assigned our right, title and interest in the preliminary surveys, Montana Power and Mountain Bell licenses and city permit, in return for the out-of-pocket costs we incurred to date on Thompson Falls. Western Satellite has the capability and the facilities to begin construction immediately, which they have agreed to do, and we are satisfied that they will be a suitable RV operator for Thompson Falls.