MV Abegweit (1982)

	MV Abegweit at Cape Tormentine
History
Name	MV Abegweit
Namesake	Her predecessor MV Abegweit which was retired in 1982. Epekwit'k or Abegweit is the Mi'kmaq Nation's name for Prince Edward Island.
Owner	Marine Atlantic
Operator	Marine Atlantic
Builder	Saint John Shipbuilding & Dry Dock of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Yard number	1136
Launched	20 February 1982
Refit	1990 ; 1991 stern thruster added;
Homeport	Borden, PEI-Cape Tormentine, NB
Identification	IMO number: 7927843
Fate	Removed from service in 1999 and scrapped in 2004.
General characteristics
Class and type	RoRo ferry
Displacement	12,000 tons
Length	401 ft
Beam	70 ft
Draught	20 ft
Ice class	1A Super Baltic
Installed power	6 main engines Ruston V16 diesel driven gear boxes
Speed	18 knots
Crew	34

Last updated December 15, 2024

MV Abegweit were icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferries which operated across the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, connecting Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick. There were two vessels named Abegweit that serviced this route between 1947 and 1997.

Design and construction

In the late 1970s, Canadian National Railway (CN) underwent a corporate reorganization which saw all of its ferry services placed under a subsidiary named CN Marine. CN Marine began the process of planning the design with German & Milne for a replacement of MV Abegweit, a vessel which entered service in 1947.

The new vessel was to be named MV Straitway and unlike MV Abegweit, was designed as a RoRo ferry which permitted faster loading and unloading. She was also custom designed for the protected waters of Northumberland Strait. This permitted German & Milne to depart from traditional vessel design by eliminating the need for a conventional hull and bow.

The new vessel was laid down as hull 1136 at Saint John Shipbuilding & Dry Dock in Saint John, New Brunswick and was launched on 20 February 1982.^[1]

Naming controversy

While the new vessel was still in the midst of construction in late 1981, it was decided that the name MV Straitway would be changed to MV Abegweit, the same name as the vessel soon to leave service. Since the new vessel would be taking the same name, it was necessary to rename the original vessel for its last months of service. The name chosen for the original MV Abegweit was MV Abby and she was discarded when the new MV Abegweit entered service in 1982. A curious phenomenon arising out of CN Marine's name-switch operation is that many in the general public assume the new vessel's name was "Abegweit II" - this is not the case as she was officially registered as MV Abegweit.

During the winter of 1982–1983, while the new MV Abegweit was in service between Borden and Tormentine, the old MV Abby was docked at Pictou, Nova Scotia and advertised for sale by CN Marine. She was purchased by the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago, Illinois who were not permitted by city ordinances to construct a clubhouse on the waterfront, therefore the club decided to purchase MV Abby and permanently moor her at their facility. The vessel left the Northumberland Strait for good in April 1983 and remains in "service" in Chicago.

CN Marine service

The new MV Abegweit was a much larger and more capable vessel - the largest on the Northumberland Strait service and she became the flagship of this route. Measuring 401 feet (122 m) in length and displacing 12,000 tons, the ship had six main engines which generated 18,000 brake horsepower (13 MW) which drove two stern propellers and two bow thrusters and one stern thruster. She could carry 974 passengers and 250 cars (or 40 trucks or 20 railway cars) and had a hoistable car deck which doubled the number of cars on the B/C decks.

Marine Atlantic service

In 1986, the federal government reorganized its east coast ferry services and changed the name of the Crown corporation from CN Marine to Marine Atlantic. On 31 December 1989 MV Abegweit's sister icebreaking ferry MV John Hamilton Gray carried the last railway cars off Prince Edward Island with the abandonment of CN service on the island (see Prince Edward Island Railway).

In 1986, discussion of a "fixed link" to replace the Borden-Cape Tormentine ferry service was revived. An 18 January 1988 plebiscite in Prince Edward Island gave 60% approval for design and construction of such a structure. On 31 May 1997 the Confederation Bridge was opened and the ferry service closed.

Sale and disposal

MV Abegweit was used as a cargo vessel to haul Marine Atlantic equipment located at Borden and Cape Tormentine to the corporation's dock and storage facilities at North Sydney, Nova Scotia to be used on its Cabot Strait service.

MV Abegweit then laid up at the Sydport Industrial Park at Point Edward, Nova Scotia on the west shore of Sydney Harbour and was placed for sale. Due to her relatively young age, Marine Atlantic had considered retrofitting MV Abegweit with a hurricane bow and to lengthen to use her on the Cabot Strait service but the cost estimates for such modifications proved too costly, therefore she was declared surplus. MV Abegweit languished for two years without moving at Sydport before being sold in July 1999 to a firm named "Accrued Investments Inc." in Houston, Texas. MV Abegweit was renamed MV Accrued Mariner and sailed to the port of Galveston, Texas that month.

The new owners were supposedly examining the possibility of using MV Accrued Mariner as a freight/railway ferry in the Great Lakes or possibly in the Gulf of Mexico but she was never used and languished in Galveston until February 2004. During this time she was again advertised for sale on eBay with a price of US$6 million at one point.

She was sold in January 2004 to a company named "Pelican Marine" in India. Her name was changed to MV Mariner under the registered owner of "Bridgend Shipping Ltd." in Kingstown, St. Vincent. The vessel sailed from Galveston at the end of February 2004 under the operation and management of "Jupiter Shipmanagement" (India). To burn off the fuel still onboard from her days at Marine Atlantic, some of which was topped off by Accrued Investments, the ship was operated at reduced speed on two engines. Mariner crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean arriving at the Alang Ship Breaking Yard in Alang, India in early May 2004.

The Lloyd's Registry shows her as being scrapped on 9 May 2004.

Related Research Articles

The Northumberland Strait is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western shores.

The Confederation Bridge is a box girder bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, linking the province of Prince Edward Island with the mainland province of New Brunswick. Opened May 31, 1997, the 12.9-kilometre (8.0 mi) bridge is Canada's longest bridge and the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water.

Marine Atlantic Inc. is an independent Canadian federal Crown corporation which is mandated to operate ferry services between the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

The Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR) was a historic Canadian railway in Prince Edward Island (PEI). The railway ran tip-to-tip on the island, from Tignish in the west to Elmira in the east, with major spurs serving Borden-Carleton's train ferry dock, the capital in Charlottetown, Montague and Georgetown and the original eastern terminus at Souris. A major spur from Charlottetown served Murray Harbour on the south coast.

Northumberland Ferries Limited (NFL) is a ferry company operating in eastern Canada and headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. NFL is also the owner of subsidiary Bay Ferries Limited through its holding company.

Bay Ferries Limited, or simply, Bay Ferries, is a ferry company operating in eastern Canada and is headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is a subsidiary of Northumberland Ferries Limited and a sister company to the defunct Bay Ferries Great Lakes Limited.

CN Marine was a Canadian ferry company headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Abegweit may refer to:

Cape Tormentine is a rural community and former local service district in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It is located on the Northumberland Strait at the Abegweit Passage, the shortest crossing between Prince Edward Island and the mainland. It once flourished as a transportation hub between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island but has been in decline since 1997 when the ferry service was closed due to the opening of the Confederation Bridge. At the Canada 2011 Census the population was 108, three quarters what it was at the 2006 census.

MV Abegweit was an icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferry which operated across the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, connecting Port Borden to Cape Tormentine between 1947 and 1982.

MV Caribou was a Marine Atlantic passenger/vehicle ferry which operated between the islands of Newfoundland and Cape Breton in eastern Canada.

Route 16 is a two-lane highway in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The 52 km (32 mi) route begins at Route 2 in Tantramar and ends at the midpoint of the Confederation Bridge, where it becomes Prince Edward Island Route 1.

Marine Industries Limited (MIL) was a Canadian ship building, hydro-electric and rail car manufacturing company, in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, with a shipyard located on the Richelieu river about 1 km from the St. Lawrence River. It employed up to 8,500 people during the World War II support effort.

MV John Hamilton Gray was an icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferry which operated across the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, connecting Port Borden to Cape Tormentine between 1968–1997.

Borden-Carleton is a town in Prince County in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. It is situated on the south shore fronting on the Northumberland Strait. The town was originally incorporated as a community on April 12, 1995, through the amalgamation of the town of Borden and the community of Carleton. The town of Borden opted to demote its status to a community in light of a declining tax base with the pending completion of the Confederation Bridge and the closure of the Marine Atlantic ferry service. Borden-Carleton became a town on July 31, 2012.

The MV Vacationland is a Canadian RORO ferry that operated across the Northumberland Strait between the ports of Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Port Borden, Prince Edward Island.

MV Holiday Island was a Canadian RORO ferry that operated across the Northumberland Strait between the ports of Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia. The vessel was owned by the Government of Canada and was managed and operated by Northumberland Ferries Limited. After suffering a serious fire, the ship was broken up for scrap in 2023

Saint John Shipbuilding was a Canadian shipbuilding company located in Saint John, New Brunswick. The shipyard was active from 1923 to 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Railway</span>

The New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Railway, was a company incorporated in 1874 to build a line from the Prince Edward Island ferry terminal at Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick to Sackville where it would connect to the Intercolonial Railway.

To Prince Edward Island is a 1965 acrylic on Masonite painting by Alex Colville. One of his most well-known paintings, it is held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

References

↑ "Abegweit (7927843)" . Miramar Ship Index . Retrieved 28 June 2020.

External links

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[1] "Abegweit (7927843)" . Miramar Ship Index . Retrieved 28 June 2020.

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