Final days of the ferries
Where are they now?
– MV Holiday Island (19711997): operates across the Northumberland Strait on the Wood Islands, P.E.I. to Caribou, N.S. ferry route.
– MV Vacationland (19711997): Sold to the government of New Brunswick, but never put back into service. Was then sold to a company in Quebec for service on the St. Lawrence River.
– QSMV Abegweit (1947): Now at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago, Illinois.
– MV Abegweit (1982): Scrapped at a ship-breaking yard in Alang, Gujarat, India. – MV Lucy Maud Montgomery (1969-1975): Thought to be deserted somewhere off the Bahamas.
– MV John Hamilton Grey (1968): Scrapped in 2004 at a ship-breaking yard in Alang, Gujarat, India.
– MV Confederation (19621975): Thought to be scrapped somewhere in the Mediterranean.
– SS P.E.I. (1917-1968): Provided service in the Great Lakes, but was eventually scrapped. –SS Charlottetown (19311941): Sank off Port Mouton, N.S. on its way for refit.
It’s been an imposing figure in the lives of Islanders for 20 years, but what effects has the ‘fixed-link’ had on P.E.I.? Ed MacDonald, a history professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, says it’s hard to predict the consequences because things change quickly.
“We live in a world full of all kinds of changing factors and variables. The Prince Edward Island before the Bridge is, in some ways, very similar to the Prince Edward Island after the Bridge.
“The Island’s sense of cultural and physical isolation had already been considerably eroded in the previous years by the onslaught of global media, television, radio and improvements in the ferry service.” An issue with assessing the problem with the fixed link is that there is very little investigation of its impact.
“But the Island wasn’t an isolated or background changed place before the fixed link. We had already undergone a massive transformation in World War Two.”
What hadn’t changed was the Island’s self image, he said.