Ferry ‘family’
Bedeque museum featuring 100 years of Marine Atlantic on P.E.I. this summer
If you’re an Islander over the age of 25 or so, chances are you have some kind of connection to the Marine Atlantic ferry service.
Maybe playing in the arcades was the best part of your family vacation? Maybe you had family who worked for the company? Maybe you met your spouse working in the vessel’s kitchen?
The stories people tell about their connection to the ferries are endless and, after a 20 year absence, often tinged with more than a little nostalgia. Tom Sherry and Valerie Curtis recently dove head-first into the long and sometimes odd history of Marine Atlantic on P.E.I. as part of their work with the Bedeque Area Historical Museum.
The museum chooses a theme to focus on every year, said Sherry, and this year they’ve received funding from the P.E.I. Community Museum Grant Foundation to help highlight the 100th anniversary of Marine Atlantic on P.E.I.
They’re hoping it will be a popular subject as countless Islanders have at least some connection to the service. “It was a very important part of the Island’s history,” he said.
“All the people we’ve interviewed, they’ve said the same thing, ‘It was like a family.’” As part of the display, the museum has interviewed a number of former ferry employees, “from captains to cooks,” and plans to create story boards from what those people shared. They also recorded the interviews, so those will also be available this summer and into the future as part of the archive. Many also have a personal collection of Marine Atlantic-related items, and have been photographed and cataloged.
It’s been a rewarding project to work on, said Curtis.
“It’s been an interesting journey. I really knew very little about the ferry service so it’s been very educational on a personal level,” she said.
The museum, located at 950 Callbeck Street in Bedeque, will open for the season in early July, though an exact date has not been determined.
If anyone would like to contact Sherry or Curtis regarding the Marine Atlantic exhibit, they can do so via email at: tsherry@gmail.com or becurtis@pei.sympatico.ca.