Scotia Prince Cruises
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Scotia Prince Cruises was a cruise ferry operator based in Maine which owns and operates the M/S SCOTIA PRINCE. This ferry operated across the Gulf of Maine between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia until the end of the 2004 sailing season.
Lion Ferry
The Portland-Yarmouth seasonal (summer only) ferry service was established in 1970 by European ferry operator Lion Ferry. The first vessel was the M/S PRINCE OF FUNDY which operated from 1970-1976. She was assisted on the route between 1973-1976 by the M/S BOLERO. Between 1976-1981 the only vessel being used was the M/S CARIBE.Lion Ferry obtained use of the Portland Marine Terminal in Maine which was owned by the City of Portland under an "exclusive-use" contract which prevented any competitor ferry service from using the facility. It also used the Yarmouth Ferry Terminal in Nova Scotia which was owned by the federal Department of Transport, although Lion had to share its Yarmouth facility with Canadian National Railways which operated the M/V BLUENOSE ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine.
From 1978-1982, CN Marine also operated the M/V MARINE EVANGELINE (ex-M/S Duke of Yorkshire) between Yarmouth and another terminal owned by Canadian National Railways on the Portland waterfront.
Prince of Fundy Cruises
The service was sold by Lion Ferry in 1982 to Baron Stig Leuhusen who established Prince of Fundy Cruises as a subsidiary of Panamanian-based Transworld Steamship Company. The vessel M/S SCOTIA PRINCE (ex-M/S STENA OLYMPICA) was acquired and began service that season. In 1983, the other Yarmouth ferry operator, CN Marine, began using a sistership M/V BLUENOSE II (ex-M/S STENA JUTLANDICA), however Prince of Fundy Cruises had the SCOTIA PRINCE lengthened in 1987 for increased capacity, changing the visual similarities between both ships. Leuhusen died in 1996 and his estate listed the company for sale in 1999.Scotia Prince Cruises
In August 2000 the company's shares were purchased by a group led by Matthew Hudson of Virginia and the company was renamed Scotia Prince Cruises. The SCOTIA PRINCE, was re-flagged (Bahamas). The company upgraded the ship and onboard services in an effort to reposition the buiness from a transport provider to a vacation company. The service was marketed as a cruise-ferry and destination in its own right. Packaged vacations in Nova Scotia and Maine were also offered by the new company.In 1997, CN Marine's successor (government-owned) Marine Atlantic sold the rights to its Yarmouth-Bar Harbor service, along with the M/V BLUENOSE, to Northumberland Ferries Limited which established a subsidiary service named Bay Ferries Limited. The BLUENOSE II was sold at the end of the 1997 season and the high-speed catamaran ferry THE CAT (Hull number Incat 046, ex DEVIL CAT) began service the following summer in 1998 dropping the crossing time from 6 hours to 2.5 hours. At the same time, the federal Department of Transport transferred operational responsibility of the Yarmouth ferry terminal to Bay Ferries, thus Scotia Prince was forced into the position of having to pay for terminal usage of the facility to its main competitor. A few years later, "THE CAT" was replaced by a slightly larger one, INCAT 059, though still referred to as "THE CAT."
During the winter of 2002-2003, Scotia Prince Cruises Ltd. inaugurated a service called the "Yucatan Express", using the M/S SCOTIA PRINCE on a route between Tampa, Florida and Cancun, Mexico and Merida, Mexico.
NOTE
The next paragraph is a biased report
The 2004 tourist season got off to a slow start across Maine and Nova Scotia reportedly due to the unwillingness of U.S.-based travellers to journey abroad during the presidential election year. There were also ongoing problems with Yarmouth terminal operator Bay Ferries, which had been negligent in maintaining a pedestrian gangway that had collapsed injuring several workers in 2002, inconveniencing Scotia Prince walk-on passengers. Most critically, Scotia Prince Cruises Ltd. discovered dangerous levels of toxic mold at the terminal they leased from the cty of Portland. The city, which had promised a new ferry terminal would be available in 2002, committed to having the old terminal safely remediated by April 1, 2005 and based on the city's assurances the company prepared to sail in 2005.Based on reports from CDC's NIOSH and a toxicologist, on April 6, 2005 Scotia Prince Cruises Ltd. announced that it was cancelling just the 2005 sailing season due to a lack of safe facilities at the Portland terminal. Later that day the City of Portland terminated the company's lease and provided notice that the company was being evicted from the terminal facilities.
End of biased text
The company will not resume services from Portland. The ship was laid-up in Charleston, South Carolina in December 2004 and was placed on the market for charter or sale. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency chartered the vessel in mid-September 2005 for 6 months as a floating hotel for victims made homeless from that natural disaster. In late September 2005 it was announced that Bay Ferries Limited would begin offering high-speed service from Yarmouth-Portland in 2006 using HSC INCAT 059.
External link
INCAT 046 (former Bar Harbor-Yarmouth ferry: http://www.ferry-site.dk/ferry.php?id=9172076&lang=enINCAT 059 (current Portland-Yarmouth ferry): http://www.incat.com.au/news/media.cgi?task=SHOWCATEGORY&category=63450
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