Walk along Halifax’s scenic waterfront and an elegant, timeless ship docked at the museum wharves, appears. Just steps away from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, CSS Acadia, a special museum ship, represents a historic Maritime era, from its arrival to Halifax in 1913, to its working life until 1969.
At different times, Acadia has been “Canadian Scientific Ship” and “Canadian Survey Ship” and as HMCS Acadia commissioned during both the First and Second World Wars. It survived the 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion and was in the harbour that fateful day.
This Edwardian period vessel was specifically designed and built to survey Canada’s northern waters, from the ice-infested Hudson’s Bay to Nova Scotia’s South Shore. In pioneering hydrographic research in Canada’s Arctic waters to charting the coast of Newfoundland after the province joined Confederation in 1949, CSS Acadia represents adventurous voyages, historic experiences, and stories of crew members and their work functions weaved into the ship’s long tenure, spanning 56 years of service.
Visitors can have a glimpse of CSS Acadia’s glorious career with an interpretive installation that resides dockside near the vessel at the museum’s wharf.
