One of Canada’s most storied ferries — the last vessel that once fulfilled Ottawa’s promise to keep Prince Edward Island connected to the mainland — is being hauled off for scrap, marking the end of a maritime era that helped shape Confederation itself.The federal fisheries department confirmed the MV Prince Edward, later known as the Captain Earl Winsor, will be dismantled after years of decay and a catastrophic flood left it beyond saving. Built in 1972 to serve the P.E.I. run, the ferry was offloaded in 1997 for $300,000 to Newfoundland and Labrador, where it spent its final working years serving remote communities on Fogo, Change and Farewell Islands.By 2018, the province unloaded the aging vessel, which was then towed to Springdale, Nfld. A contractor’s notice, Disposal Of The MV Captain Earl Winsor, said the ship sat idle ever since — and in 2024, an overboard discharge pipe burst, flooding large sections below deck..A consultants’ report dated October 13 made the verdict blunt: the ship is finished. Technicians found that the belated cleanup efforts in passenger areas and engine rooms were merely cosmetic. The main engines and generators had been fully submerged, and any attempt to restart them would require a full teardown. Without emergency stabilization, consultants warned, the vessel likely would have sunk.The Prince Edward occupies a unique place in Canadian history. When P.E.I. joined Confederation in 1873, Ottawa guaranteed Islanders a permanent transportation link to the mainland — a commitment fulfilled for generations by federally mandated ferry service.That changed in 1988 when Prince Edward Islanders voted — narrowly — to replace the ferries with a fixed link. .Alex Campbell, the former P.E.I. premier, later reflected that support for the Confederation Bridge was hardly overwhelming. “Only 59% of the population thought it was a good idea,” he wrote in a 2017 commentary, recalling fierce opposition to the project.Campbell noted that critics warned the bridge would usher in crime, drugs and social disorder, eroding the Island’s quiet way of life and making it easier for mainland “hooligans” to stream across. Islanders, he said, have always been rooted in tradition and self-reliance and have long resisted sweeping changes.
