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| CANADA, SUMMER 2006 Part One continued: Princess of Acadia Saint John – Digby Text and all pictures © matt@hhvferry.com except where stated |
| Saint John is perhaps most famous for its “Reversing Falls” where the peculiar action of rising and falling tides causes the flow of the St. John River to be temporarily “reversed”. We unfortunately were very much only passing through en-route to Nova Scotia but doubtless it was high on the list of priorities for passengers from the Carnival Victory which was berthed at the cruise terminal. We headed instead however to the more out-of-town Saint John ferry terminal from where Bay Ferries operate their service across the Bay of Fundy to Digby, using the veteran Princess of Acadia. Completed in 1971, the ship has operated on this route ever since although a series of restructurings have seen her operators change from Canadian Pacific (the ship began life with the famous latter CP funnel markings), through the state-owned CN Marine and later Marine Atlantic. In 1997 the operation was privatised, being taken over by Bay Ferries although the Princess of Acadia remained the property of the government and was merely chartered to the new operator.
Just two days after we sailed on the ship, Bay Ferries announced that they would be discontinuing the service at the end of October 2006, citing falling traffic levels and mounting losses. The company explained that the Saint John-Digby operation did not receive any subsidy, although it was not mentioned that the government-owned ports at either end are apparently rented for $500 each per year whilst the ship herself is chartered for just $1 a year. In any event, it seems that unless the company receive more formalised financial backing or another operator steps into the breach the route, a most useful short-cut which can save hundreds of miles of driving, will cease. On board before the announcement, the mood was somewhat gloomy, but this had more to do with the severe patch of fog which had settled over the Saint John ferry terminal after we arrived for our sailing than any obvious expectation that the end was near: although it has to be said we weren’t particularly on the look out for any telling signs, it didn’t really seem that anyone saw this coming. At least on our crossing there was a fairly healthy passenger load, including decent amounts of freight but this seems not to have been the overall picture and Bay Ferries cite a 25% decline in traffic since their 1998 peak. [continued below] |
| Top: The Princess of Acadia in the fog at Saint John, 28 June 2006 |
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| The Princess of Acadia was fairly significantly refitted in 2003 – it seems that originally on board she had restrained, traditional décor with much use of wood or wood-effect panelling, which went along with her attractive external silhouette. Now however she has been somewhat updated but the result remains a practical if somewhat uninspired solution to what remains very much a ferry route not a pleasure trip. A lower forward lounge is fitted with fixed seating, aft of which, slightly offset to starboard, is an alleyway heading back to the cafeteria off which can be found a small shop and information desk. The cafeteria itself is large with a good mixture of reasonably priced simple food available from the aft walk-through servery area. The hard wooden fixed seating presumably encourages passengers not to linger at great length here after they have finished their meals however. On either beam at this level are traditional-style covered promenades and if one squinted just right you could pretend for a brief happy moment that you were on board the Ancona or perhaps the Agios Georgios. Upstairs is a refurbished bar area forward but, alas, the bar itself remained very much closed throughout this crossing. The ship also has plentiful outside decking much of which was in heroically poor condition, as if the crew had made a real effort to cultivate areas of pitting, warping and rust. As a proud and enthusiastic collector of photographs of just this kind of thing, this ship enters the X-rated part of my collection, nestling alongside the splendour of fellow icons of grime such as the Pride of Dover, the Atlas or the Anthi Marina.
Overall though, the Princess of Acadia is actually a really lovely traditional ship that I’m sure many enthusiasts for classic ferries would adore if they have not already sailed on her. She has the kind of outside decks in particular where, rust apart, you can spend hours sitting and staring, just enjoying being at sea on board a superbly attractive ship. The opportunity to purchase an alcoholic drink would have been nice though. [continued below] |
| Above: The Carnival Victory at Saint John's cruise terminal. |
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| After disembarkation, we wandered down to an otherwise deserted pebbly beach near the ferry terminal, where an hour or so was enjoyed sitting in the early evening sunlight prior to watching the Princess of Acadia sweep by on her return departure to Saint John. Leaving Digby we stayed the night in a rather pleasant bed and breakfast in Annapolis Royal, about 20 miles up the coast. From here, the following day, the first bit of real road-tripping would begin for us. This generally consisted of either myself or Richard driving whilst the non-car conversant Bruce sat in the back on an attentive backup moose-watch, just in case one of the dopey animals should get in the way of our car’s ongoing quest for Canadian passenger shipping. At least that was what he claimed to be doing although I rather suspect he was too terrified of the whole driving process to even consider closing his eyes for an hour or two. Richard had managed to negotiate a particularly favourable deal for car hire, picking up in Saint John and dropping off on Prince Edward Island six days later. Doubtless, the people at Avis had thought this would be a gentle amble through New Brunswick and over to the island and indeed the kind lady when we picked the car up went into a bit of detail about exactly how to do this and no-one had the heart to tell her we would instead be flogging it the best part of 1,600 miles, going as far north as Saint Barbe in Newfoundland. [continued on next page] |
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| Below: The Princess of Acadia departing Digby on her evening return sailing to Saint John. |
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| Above: Onboard the Princess of Acadia: the modestly-sized vehicle deck. |
| Above & below: Two views of the ship's refitted forward seating lounge. |
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| Above & below: Aft of the forward lounge, this central walkway (above) with shop and reception desk, leads aft to the utilitarian cafeteria (below). |
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| Above: On either beam of the lower passenger deck, the Princess of Acadia features traditional enclosed promenade decks. |
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| Above & below: Two views of the refurbished but still-pleasant bar, forward on the upper passenger deck. |
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| Above: Just aft of the bar is this compact childrens' playroom. |
| Above: Heroic deck maintenance on the upper port-side promenade. |
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