Captain Edward Peter De Cunha served in the Merchant Marine with foreign-going ships out of Montreal and the United Kingdom. Towards the end of his career, De Cunha worked as master mariner for Deepsea and B.C. Ferries in the Gulf of Georgia.
Family-owned Philippine shipping company that operated ships in inter-island and also foreign trade. Don Esteban de la Rama, former senator of Panay, founded this firm at Iloilo, Philippines, in October 1938 and embarked upon an ambitious building program at Trieste and Germany before WWII that resulted in five pre-war cargo ships and passenger/cargo vessels. In 1939, using the chartered Norwegian vessel Sorholt, de la Rama began a Philippines-California-New York Service. After the war, it expanded with older tonnage, and also acquired two relatively new freighters from the United States Maritime Commission. During the war, De la Rama operated three Liberty ships on behalf of the United States Maritime Commission. In 1949, the company instituted a joint United States-Philippines service with Swedish East Asiatic after selling its inter-island vessels to William Lines of Manila and divesting itself of its other vessels. The firm used chartered tonnage, mostly Scandinavian and British, after that, and was managed by Barber of New York. In 1965, De la Rama changed its corporate name to Blue Sea Line and eventually became part of the Norwegian Wilhelmsen Shipping Company.
The British Columbia Department of Highways was created in 1954. In 1976, it was renamed the Department of Highways and Public Works. It became part of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways in 1979, which, in 2001, was renamed the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. This ministry also operated ferries on inland lakes.
The Department of Marine and Fisheries, created on July 1, 1867, was legally responsible for the seacoast and inland fisheries of the new dominion.
When British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, the federal government recognized the need for a strong presence in the Pacific region to monitor fisheries and oceans. The Department established a headquarters in Victoria, and by 1875, the Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries recommended that the Fisheries Act be applied to British Columbia. In the following year, a proclamation was issued, extending the Act.
The Government Organization Act of 1979 resulted in the creation of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, under which the federal government's fisheries management and ocean science programs are now jointly located. The Constitution Act, 1982 reinforced this mandate by granting the Department federal jurisdiction over fisheries, public harbours, and navigation. Today, the mandate still calls for the Department to manage Canada's waterways so that they are clean, safe, productive, and accessible -- to ensure sustainable use of fisheries resources, and to facilitate marine trade and commerce.
(see also Fisheries and Oceans Canada)