Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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MV Kipawo
MV Kipawo
Built at Saint John New Brunswick in 1925, Kipawo was purchased by the DAR and named after the first two letters of the ports she served, Kingsport, Wolfville and Parrsboro. Kipawo began her service in 1926, replacing the smaller DAR ferry, the SS Prince Albert. New combined freight sheds and wating rooms were built for her arrival at the three ports.(1) Kipawo was 113 feet long. She could carry 127 passengers as well as eight automobiles, loaded by a unique cradle system. The ferry connected to DAR trains at Kingsport and Wolfville according to a unique and ever-changing Time Table determined by the Minas basin tides. She sported brass DAR crests on her bows, identical to those seen on DAR steam locomotives. On April 23, 1941, MV Kipawo left Sydney, NS for Montreal where it became the HMCS Kipawa[1], was refitted as a tender for anti-submarines nets and saw service in Conception Bay, Newfoundland off the iron ore loading piers at Bell Island. Interestingly enough, during her war years she was named the Kipawa. She returednto civilian service after the war, remaining in Newfoundland where she continued to operate as a ferry until 1977. She was returned to the Minas Basin in 1982 and beached at Parrsboro where her partially enclosed hull serves today as a theatre stage run by Ships Company Theatre.
Gallery
The MV Kipawo pictured in the 1938 Passenger Time Table.
References and Footnotes
- (1) Leon Barron Collection "Kipawo" file
- Canadian Pacific's Dominion Atlantic Railway (Volume 1), Gary Ness, page 5
- Marguerite Woodworth, History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, page 148
