Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Princess of Acadia's maiden voyage (then under Canadian Pacific colors). She is the longest running ferry on the Digby-Saint John route since the service started over 200 years ago. Built at the Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock Company as Hull number 1098, her keel was laid on January 1, 1970 and launched in May 1971 (exact date unknown). The original name was supposed to be MV Princess of New Nova, however, that was changed before her launch. She was run by Canadian Pacific from June 1971 until CN Marine (later known as Marine Atlantic) took her over in September 1976. By April 1997, Bay Ferries Limited took over the run and is currently running the route to this day. She is 480' in length, 66' wide, a maximum draught of 15' and controlled by two controllable pitch propellors with steering by two rudders and one bow thruster. She's also the first ship in Canada to accomodate drop trailors (also known as the ROLOC system). The only minor problem she had on delivery was with the bow visor, otherwise, it has been incident free for 40 years. During the CP and CN days, she could cross the bay in 2 1/2 hours at a service speed of 18 knots, now, it does the crossing in 3 hours at a speed of around 13-14 knots to save on fuel. Long live what I call the "queen of the Fundy run" and "old reliable"!!!
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