7:00 pm
They are an important part of daily life in the HRM but few people give them a second glance or even stop to think about the rich and amazing story that dates back to 1752. Join Richard MacMichael, Coordinator of Visitor Services and Interpretive Programming at the Maritime Museum for a selection of ferry tales, outlining the colourful, comedic and chaotic history of our ferry service.
The story starts in 1752, when an Act of Council to operate a ferry service in Halifax Harbour was put out to tender. In the centuries that followed, the ferries themselves changed with the times, from sturdy rowboats, whose crossings were charmingly signaled by blowing conch shells, to a team boat powered by horses on a treadmill and the first ferry that was powered solely by steam, which began service in 1830 and whose reliability inspired one noted Haligonian to dream of greater things.
In the last century, the ferries survived scrapes in both World Wars and being buffeted about on a certain December morning in 1917. In the decades that followed, the ferries had their fare share of ups and downs, including ridership numbers plummeting after the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge opened in 1955, yet they are still with us, still plying their daily route across the Harbour, as Joan and Lewis Payzant famously wrote, “like a weaver’s shuttle”.
For additional information:
Richard MacMichael
902-424-8897
richard.macmichael@novascotia.ca