End of the Ferry Tale

Old-time fairy tales ended with "they lived happily ever after". Old time ferry tales - despite sounding the same - unfortunately end at the scrap yard. And such is the case for one of a long line of ferries that once joined New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The narrow stretch of the Northumberland Strait between Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Borden, Prince Edward Island (sometimes referred to as the Abegeweit Passage) was long the favoured crossing route joining the "island province" with the mainland. The Canadian government operated the service, with management by the Canadian National Railway and then their subsidiary CN Marine, which along with the railroad was later privatized as Marine Atlantic. The ferries themselves were owned for the government of Canada by the Minister of Transport.

The 12,900 meter (8 mile) long Confederation Bridge (under construction in the background) meant the end of year round ferry service between Borden and Cape Tormentine.

 In winter it was ruggged ice class ships that maintained the crossing, but in summer there were additional craft to meet the demands of the tourist trade. These featured more open decks that allowed passengers to enjoy the "sea breezes" during the crossings.

 The summer ferries in their winter quarters at Borden. The open decks were tarped in to permit maintenance work.

 

When the Confederation Bridge opened for car and truck traffic, at essentially the same location, the Borden / Tormentine ferry route was discontinued. The ferries were sold off, with the exception of the summer ferry Holiday Island which was transferred to the seasonal Caribou, Nova Scotia to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island service, operated by Northumberland Ferries Ltd (NFL).

 It soldiered on in that role until 2022 when it had an engine room fire resulting in a constructive total loss. It was eventually broken up in 2023 in Sheet Harbour, NS.

The sister summer ferry Vacationland was proposed to operate from Black's Harbour, New Brunswick to Grand Manan Island, NB. It was renamed Fundy Paradise but it was unsuited to sea conditions, and was also too large for the port facilites, so it was sold off too.

By this time the ship was beyond its "best before date" and was then laid up in Liverpool and Sydney, NS then Sorel, QC and finally Quebec City in  2010. Plans to convert the ship to a sand dredge for use on the St.Lawrence River came to naught when the holders of the existing dredging contract blocked the idea. 

With no particular plans for the future the ship languished at various berths in Quebec City, building up port fees and continuing to deteriorate.
 

Finally this spring arrangements were made to scrap the ship at the Marine Recycling Corp's North Sydney, NS, yard. On Sunday, May 11 the tug W.N.Twolan pulled the hulk out of Quebec City. To keep the tow on the straight and narrow, the Quebec City-based tug Océan Raynald T. was stern tethered escort downstream as far as the Cacouna area.

The Fundy Paradise and sister Holiday Island were built by Port Weller Dry Dock in1971. They measured 3139 gt and had a capacity for 405 passengers and 155 vehicles. They operated as double enders with loading ramps and navigation bridges fore and aft. They were powered by two Ruston V-16 engines totalling 7250 bhp, driving Voith-Schneider cycloidal propulsors fore and aft.

The ships were originally to be named after two "Fathers of Confederation", from Prince Edward Island.  The names selected were William Pope (1825-1879) and Thomas Haviland (1822-1895). (Their roles in Canada's late nineteenth century history are far too complex to go into here.) The tourism marketing experts apparently weighed in on the choices, and they were soon dropped. The proposed William Pope became the Holiday Island and the Thomas Haviland became the Vacationland.

 With the imminent scrapping of the Fundy Paradise there remains only one ship still afloat from the old Borden-Tormentine route and that is the 1947 built Abegweit which since 1983 has served as floating headquarters for the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago. Safely berthed in fresh water, it will likely last longer than I will.

The W.N.Twolan and Fundy Paradise arrived in North Sydney May 15.

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To PEI - Part 1, the hard way

The recent closure of the Confederation Bridge to all traffic during a blizzard, was one of the rare times that Canada has been cut off from Prince Edward Island in recent years. Since the 8 mile long bridge opened in 1997 there have often been traffic restrictions due to high winds, but only a very few actual closures.

In the years before the bridge there were long periods when there was no traffic at all. Ice boats, then ships attempted to make the crossing during ice season, and were often turned back or delayed.

It was not until almost mid 20th century that regular ferries became powerful enough to battle most conditions, but even then there were frequent delays.

I recently came across some old photos taken with a tiny Minox "spy" camera, and so the quality is understandably poor, but they are worth sharing. They appear to have been taken in the spring of the LATE 1950s, after most of the ice was gone, but I have no further information.

The rail ferry Scotia II steams across the Northumberland Strait.

 

The barge-like ferry shuttled rails cars, and the occasional locomotive for the CNR.

 

The photos were taken from the deck of the ferry Prince Edward Island, a rail and car/passenger ferry. CN adopted its famous "wet noodle" logo in 1961. Before that CNR ships had a blue / white / red funnel ( or in the case of this ship, four of them.).

The spy camera was better at detail photos.

 

A view over the bow shows some ice. but also some interesting rivet work on the 1915 built bulwarks.

Laid up in Dartmouth for a time, the old ferry's looks were not improved by orange funnels with the white CN logo. It was later converted to be a dredge pumping station and finally scrapped in Toronto.

That is the sealer Arctic Endeavour alongside - also no stranger to ice, despite its wooden hull. The bulker Cavala is inbound for National Gyspum, and the CN pier at left, is a junk and scrapyard run by Leo J. Beazley, with several sunken hulks on the opposite side.

In 1983 I made a memorable crossing on the John Hamilton Gray and got a close up look of Abegweit (ii) making it look easy to work through the ice.

Although ungainly looking, Abegweit (ii) was built for the ice and did a superb job from 1982 to 1997.

In the spring of 1997 I made round trip on the Abegweit and saw (and heard) John Hamilton Gray putting on a good show as it worked its way through moderate ice.

The Confederation bridge in the background is two months from opening as John Hamilton Grey storms through heavy ice, her eight Fairbanks Morses singing a happy tune.

It was my last chance to do the ferry crossing, for as soon as the bridge opened in May 1997 the Marine Atlantic Ferry service was shut down.

If some of this seems familiar - see http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fifteen-years-ago-bargain-for-8.html

There remains the seasonal ferry service between Caribou, NS and Wood Islands PEI - but that will be part 2.

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Fifteen years ago - a bargain for $8

On March 14, 1997 I made a little excursion to Prince Edward Island - my last trip through the ice on a ferry. The Confederation Bridge was to open in June of that year and the Marine Atlantic ferry service from Cape Tormentine, NB to Borden PE would shut down when the bridge opened.
I boarded Abegweit as a foot passenger and made the round trip for the grand sum of $8.

Quoting from my Shipfax newsletter of the March 1997 "John Hamilton Gray left Borden at the same time and appeared to be bobbing and weaving more than we were. Several times we crossed each others' bows as the two ships sought leads in the ice. With a mile or so to go [before we met] both vessels straightened out for a clear port to port passage.
" As the Gray drew abreast the thrum of her eight 12 cylinder Fairbanks-Morses [total 16,000 bhp] was audible in the cold air and her funnels were pumping hazy streamers of hot exhaust."
The return meet was equally exciting as more ice had built in and I can still almost hear the Gray's engines humming.

On a previous winter trip in 1983 I crossed on the Gray and got similar photos of the Abegweit. Her six Rustons totalling 18,000 bhp did not sound nearly as good, but it was an equally impressive crossing with lots of crunching ice.

Both ships were sold off and eventually scrapped despite efforts to find other work for them.

John Hamilton Gray 11,260 gross tons, built by Marine Industries Ltd in Sorel in 1968. Carried 165 cars and loaded and unloaded through a stern door. It was sold to Contessa International Cruise Line, renamed Contessa I, but plans to convert to a cruise ships fell through. Sold to Texas Treasure Casino in 2001 and renamed Texas Treasure for conversion to a casino-also failed. Remarkably the ship sailed on its own from Texas to Alang India, arriving June 29, 2004 where it was broken up. It was renamed Treasure for the delivery trip. Abegweit 13,483 gross tons, built by Saint John Shipbuilding & Dry Dock in 1982. Carried 250 autos and originally fitted with rail tracks for 20 rail cars. Had bow and stern doors. Sold in 1999 to Accrued Investments of Houston, TX and renamed Accrued Mariner for use as a casino in Galveston. In February 2004 it was also sold for scrap, renamed Mariner and also sailed on its own to Alang.