Marine Atlantic Inc. (french: Marine Atlantique) is an independent

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

federal Crown corporation which is mandated to operate

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

services between the provinces of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. Marine Atlantic's corporate headquarters are in

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

Current operations

Marine Atlantic operates ferries across the Cabot Strait on two routes: * North Sydney,

and

Port aux Basques Channel-Port aux Basques is a town at the extreme southwestern tip of Newfoundland fronting on the western end of the Cabot Strait. A Marine Atlantic ferry terminal is located in the town which is the primary entry point onto the island of Newfoun ...

* North Sydney,

and

Argentia Argentia ( ) is a Canadian commercial seaport and industrial park located in the Town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula and defined by a triangular shaped headland which r ...

The Port aux Basques route is operated year-round. This service was assumed by

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

in 1949 from the Newfoundland Railway when the Dominion of Newfoundland entered into

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominio ...

. The Argentia, Placentia route is operated seasonally during the summer (June–September). This service was established by CNR in 1967. As a result of the 2020

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the Argentia, Placentia service was suspended for the year on 8 May 2020.

Fleet

The , purchased in 2001, is a significantly smaller and lower-capacity ferry than other vessels in the fleet. ''Leif Ericson'' is 18,500 registered

tons Tons can refer to: * Tons River, a major river in India * Tamsa River, locally called Tons in its lower parts (Allahabad district, Uttar pradesh, India). * the plural of ton, a unit of mass, force, volume, energy or power :* short ton, 2,000 poun ...

and 157 metres long, carrying 500 passengers, and 250 automobile-equivalent vehicles. was originally chartered from the

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

-based

Tallink Tallink () is an Estonian shipping company operating Baltic Sea cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden to Sweden and Finland to Sweden. It is the largest passenger and cargo shipping company in the Baltic Se ...

for five years starting in October 2008; in February 2015, Marine Atlantic announced that the lease on the vessel had been renewed until November 2017 for a cost of Can$40 million. At , ''Atlantic Vision'' is the largest ship in Marine Atlantic fleet and the largest ferry in North America. On May 21, 2010, Marine Atlantic announced that the company had agreed to charter two vessels from the

Stena Line Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major u ...

to replace the aging "Gulfspan" class vessels and . The new vessels, built in 2006 and 2007, boosted capacity and lowered operating costs, as they consumed less fuel."Government of Canada invests in TWO ferries for Marine Atlantic Inc."
. May 21, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2010. On September 29, 2010, Marine Atlantic announced the names of the new vessels: and .
September 29, 2010. Retrieved October 1, 2010. ''Blue Puttees'' went into service March 2011, with ''Highlanders'' following in April 2011. In May 2015, Marine Atlantic announced that it had purchased both vessels from Stena for Can$100 million each. In July 2021, Marine Atlantic ordered an E-Flexer on charter from Stena RoRo for five years. It'll carry 1000 passengers and contain 2571 lane metres of vehicle space. The vessel is due to enter service in 2024, and will be capable of running on diesel, liquid natural gas or battery electric.

History of Newfoundland ferry services

From 1851, when the Colony of Newfoundland took over the operation of the post office, the government contracted for packet boats. By 1860 subsidized schooners were operating on the northeast coast from Greenspond to New Perlican, and along the south coast from Placentia to Channel-Port aux Basques. The first steam-packet, Lady LeMarchant, operated on Conception Bay after 1852. In 1860 the government decided to subsidize a regularly scheduled steamer service. The first vessel chartered to the service was the Victoria in 1862. In 1863 Ariel took over, alternating a northern run to Twillingate (later extended to Tilt Cove) with a southern run to LaPoile. In 1871 Grieve and Co. replaced Ariel with Leopard and Tiger, inaugurating northern and southern runs based at St. John's, to Battle Harbour in the north, and to Halifax in the south. After 1877 the two-steamer coastal service continued with Bowring Brothers' Curlew and Plover, while Lady Glover ran in Conception Bay. In 1888 Harvey & Co. took over the service, with Conscript (on the northern service) and Volunteer. The packet Hercules, then later Alert, began running in Placentia Bay, while Favourite ran in Trinity Bay and Lady Glover in Notre Dame Bay. Once the railway reached Harbour Grace there was no need for a steam-packet on Conception Bay. After Volunteer was lost in 1891, Harvey's commissioned Grand Lake and renamed Conscript the Virginia Lake. Meanwhile, Farquhar's Harlaw served western Newfoundland, out of Halifax. With its completion of the Newfoundland Railway in 1898 and following its agreement with the Newfoundland Government, the

Reid Newfoundland Company The Reid Newfoundland Company was incorporated in September 1901 and was the operator of the Newfoundland Railway across the island from 1901 to 1923. For a time it was the largest landowner in the Dominion of Newfoundland, today the modern Canad ...

under Robert G. Reid began operating coastal and ferry services for the island and Labrador, to be integrated with the railway. By 1900 they comprised a fleet of eight vessels known as the "

Alphabet Fleet The Alphabet Fleet was a fleet of vessels owned and operated by the Reid Newfoundland Company as part of the provisioning of the 1898 Railway contract between the Dominion of Newfoundland and the Reid Newfoundland Company. The vessels were named a ...

." Each vessel in the Alphabet Fleet was built in Scotland and given the name of a Scottish location by the Reids, who were of Scottish ancestry. In 1904, in response to complaints about the Reid service, the Newfoundland government subsidized the use of two outside vessels for the coastal service, the Portia and Prospero, and in 1912, set up a similar arrangement for use of the Sagona and Fogota. In 1923, under the Railway Settlement Act, the government took over the island's railway. They purchased the Alphabet Fleet from the Reids and placed it under the railway's control. In 1924, the Portia, Prospero and Sagona were purchased outright, and another vessel, the Malakoff, was brought into service. In 1925, the began its service on the Gulf run. The

Newfoundland Royal Commission {{Short description, 1933 UK royal commission on Newfoundland finances The Newfoundland Royal Commission or Amulree Commission (as it came to be known) was a royal commission established on February 17, 1933 by the Government of the United Kingdom ...

, formed in 1933 by the government of Great Britain to examine the future of Newfoundland in light of its then financial difficulties, examined the operation of ferries as part of its investigation. It recommended that an expert inquiry be held into the ferry services with a view particularly to the prevention of overlapping, more efficient and economical working and the readjustment of freight rates on a carefully planned and scientific basis. After Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949, the Newfoundland Railway and its ferry services became part of the

. In 1977, CN's marine operations in Atlantic Canada were passed to a subsidiary,

CN Marine CN Marine was a Canadian ferry company headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick. History CN Marine was created by parent Canadian National Railway (CN) in 1977 as a means to group the company's ferry operations in eastern Canada into a separate ...

Formation of Marine Atlantic

Marine Atlantic was established in 1986 to take over the provision of ferry services in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundla ...

which had previously been operated by

, a subsidiary of

. Its headquarters were in Moncton,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. Extensive budget cuts by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

during the latter part of the 1990s led to a drastic downsizing of Marine Atlantic's operations, precipitated by the 1997 opening of the

Confederation Bridge The Confederation Bridge (french: Pont de la Confédération) 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 province of ...

which replaced Marine Atlantic's most heavily used ferry service, the constitutionally-mandated ferry to

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

. Later in 1997, the company transferred the operation of its Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine ferry services between

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of ...

- Digby, Nova Scotia and

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Yarmouth is a town in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. A port town, industries include fishing, and tourism. It is the terminus of a ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine, run by Bay Ferries. History Originally inhabited by the Mi'kmaq, the reg ...

- Bar Harbor, Maine to the private-sector company

Bay Ferries Limited 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 defu ...

, a subsidiary of Northumberland Ferries Limited. That year also saw Marine Atlantic remove itself from the provision of coastal ferry services in

with the transfer of operations to the provincial government at the end of the 1997 shipping season. This agreement was reached between the federal and provincial governments in exchange for federal funding to extend regional roads such as the Trans-Labrador Highway to service coastal communities. These coastal ferry services had been initiated by the Newfoundland Railway and were assumed by Canadian National Railways, following the province's entry into

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical iss ...

in 1949, although they were not constitutionally mandated. Also in 1997 Marine Atlantic sold off its Newfoundland Dockyard, located in St. John's, Newfoundland to a private operator. The dockyard built in the 1880s was at one point in time owned by the

, then in 1923 was taken over by the Newfoundland Railway company. when Newfoundland joined Canada ownership passed to Canadian National. In 1998, the company moved its headquarters from Moncton to St. John's, after briefly considering North Sydney and

Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador Channel-Port aux Basques is a town at the extreme southwestern tip of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland fronting on the western end of the Cabot Strait. A Marine Atlantic ferry terminal is located in the town which is the primary entry point ont ...

. In late 2004, the federal government announced the appointment of a three-member committee tasked with examining future operations of Marine Atlantic. One of the options that was reportedly considered included

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

, however the subsequent report called for improved service through fleet renewal, lower fares, increased frequency of crossings, and moving the headquarters to Port aux Basques. In 2010, Marine Atlantic announced that the Canadian government was planning to invest around $900 million in the ferry operations. Two ferries, the and the , were replaced by newer ships initially chartered from

. On land, all three terminals at Marine Atlantic's ports received extensive renovations, including the construction of a new terminal building at the North Sydney facility.

Historical fleet

Marine Atlantic inherited numerous vessels from

in 1986, all of which have since been removed from service. Many of these vessels have gone through numerous ownership changes and, given their advanced age, most have been scrapped. ;Cabot Strait * (scrapped) * (sold, scrapped) * (sold, renamed ''Ana''; in service in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

) * (sold, scrapped) * (sold, renamed ''Corsica Marina II''; in service with Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries) * (sold, renamed ''Sardinia Vera''; in service with Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries) * (also operated on Northumberland Strait service, sold, renamed ''Contessa I'' and then ''Texas Treasure II'', scrapped) * (sold, scrapped) * (sold, laid up) * (sold, renamed ''Pelagitis''; in service in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

) ;Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy * (sold, scrapped) * (sold, scrapped) * MV ''Bluenose'' (ex-Stena Jutlandica) * MV ''Marine Evangeline'' (ex-Duke of Yorkshire) ;Labrador coast * (sold, laid up) * (sold, in service with Nunatsiavut Marine Inc.) * * (sold; scrapped

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

) ;Newfoundland south coast * * * * * (sistership to MV Hopedale) * (caught fire and scuttled, 1984) ;Northumberland Strait * (sold, renamed ''Accrued Mariner'', scrapped) * (also operated on Cabot Strait service, sold, renamed ''Contessa I'' and then ''Texas Treasure II'', scrapped) * (sold, renamed ''Fundy Paradise'', laid up) * (in service) * For further information on ferries which operated on

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') 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 ...

prior to Marine Atlantic's service (1986–1997), see:

Former routes

From its inception in 1986 until 1997, Marine Atlantic operated the following routes: * Port aux Basques, NL along

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

's remote South Coast serving outports and larger centres such as Burgeo and Ramea to

Terrenceville Terrenceville is a small town located on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, south west of Swift Current. History Terrenceville is located on the island of Newfoundland, approximately north of Marystown on Route 211. It was known as H ...

* Lewisporte, NL, and St. Anthony, NL along the rugged

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

coast serving outports and larger centres such as Cartwright and

Happy Valley-Goose Bay Happy Valley-Goose Bay (Inuit: ''Vâli'') is a town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Located in the central part of Labrador on the coast of Lake Melville and the Churchill River, Happy Valley-Goose Bay is the largest pop ...

to Nain * Borden, PE to Cape Tormentine, NB * Saint John NB to

Digby, NS Digby is an incorporated town in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is in the historical county of Digby and a separate municipality from the Municipality of the District of Digby. The town is situated on the western shore of the Annapolis Bas ...

* Yarmouth, NS to Bar Harbor,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

Newfoundland Dockyard

Marine Atlantic operated the Newfoundland Dockyard, a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

located in St. John's from 1986 until its sale in 1997. This facility had been established by the Newfoundland Railway to build and repair its coastal ferries. In 1949 it was transferred to Canadian National Railways after that company assumed ownership of the Newfoundland Railway when the country entered

. Its responsibility was transferred to the railway's subsidiary

in 1977 and then to Marine Atlantic in 1986. Upon its privatization in 1997, it was renamed NewDock-St. John's Dockyard Company.

References

External links

*
Marine Atlantic corporate web site

Marine Atlantic unofficial web site
{{authority control Federal departments and agencies of Canada Canadian federal Crown corporations Companies established in 1986 Ferry companies of Maine Ferry companies of New Brunswick Ferry companies of Newfoundland and Labrador Ferry companies of Nova Scotia Ferry companies of Prince Edward Island Companies based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador 1986 establishments in New Brunswick