For 15 years the MV Kipawo connected communities on both sides of the Minas Basin.
While that connection was severed more than 80 years ago, the ship’s 100th birthday is being celebrated in Parrsboro and in a pair of Annapolis Valley communities where the Kipawo made stops between 1926 and 1941, when it was requisitioned for the war effort.
“She’s a legendary vessel,” said Laura Vingoe-Cram, artistic director of Ship’s Company Theatre said. “She’s lived so many lives with many career changes over the years. She was a ferry boat, she served in World War Two and then she went to Newfoundland and was almost forgotten. And just when it looked as though she had reached the end of the line, she started a new life as part of a theatre company.
“In every career she’s had she’s done the job of connecting people across place and across time through her history. It’s a physical and spiritual connection. That’s why she deserves to be celebrated.”
The Kipawo, which was the 33rd and final ferry to provide service across the Minas Passage, was launched from Saint John in December 1924 and commissioned into the Dominion Atlantic Railway in April 1926.
Ninety-five-year-old Leoda Varner, who would’ve been 11 or 12 when the Kipawo made its last sailing from Parrsboro, cuts a cake featuring the former ferry during its 100th birthday celebration in Parrsboro. The cake was made by Leoda’s daughter, Sharon Orr.
Its name stands for the first two letters of the vessels ports of call including Kingsport, Parrsboro and Wolfville.
As tides permitted, her sailings, that generally took about 90 minutes, were scheduled to connect with Dominion Atlantic passenger trains in Kingsport and Wolfville.
After being requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1941, the Kipawo served in Conception Bay, N.L. looking after anti-submarine nets and after the war until 1977 was a passenger ferry at Bell Island, N.L. and a tour boat off Terra Nova National Park.
The Kipawo was purchased in 1981 by the Kipawo Heritage Society of Wolfville and later by the former town of Parrsboro as a museum. The vessel was beached in a tidal inlet and in 1984 it became home of Ship’s Company Theatre.
“We felt it was necessary to celebrate what she has done for our community,” Vingoe-Cram said. “The bones of what was the Kipawo remain with us as part of Ship’s Company Theatre, but her spirit lives on in our hearts and minds. It’s fun to celebrate her and her history because there are so many stories from when she was ferry boat. There are people who tell stories of how their grandparents met on the Kipawo, or they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Kipawo.”
The Kip is also at the centre of a fundraising effort by the Ship’s Company Theatre Society, which is selling 25 prints of Stephen Osler’s etching of the ‘Kipawo: And By the Merest Accident Her Bones Were Saved.’ Osler created the image to celebrate The Ship's Company Theatre’s 10th anniversary in 1994 with the intention that a maximum of 50 prints be made. The first 25 were printed in 1994. The final 25 have been printed this year.
"The Kipawo holds a special place in the hearts of so many residents of Cumberland and beyond. Preserving and celebrating its story helps ensure future generations understand the important role it played in the development of our communities and our region,” Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Rod Gilroy said. “The Kipawo has been much more than a ferry, it has been a symbol of the connection between communities on both sides of the Minas Basin. On behalf of the Municipality of Cumberland, I extend congratulations to everyone who has worked to keep the legacy of the Kipawo alive as we mark its 100th anniversary."
Katherine Ryan of the Randall House Museum speaks about how the Kipawo connected Cumberland County with Kingsport and Wolfville in the Annapolis Valley.
Katherine Ryan is managing director of the Randall House Museum in Wolfville, who spearheaded the celebrations.
“We’re holding celebrations in each of the three ports the Kipawo serviced because each port has its own story,” Ryan said. “The Kipawo is in Parrsboro now and is mostly associated with Parrsboro, but we in Wolfville have our own collection of artifacts and stories and we’ve partnered with the Kingsport Community Association to do some events in connection with events already happening. In Kingsport that’s Gala Days, in Wolfville it’s Mud Creek Days and in Parrsboro it coincided with Old Home Week.”
Ryan said Randall House Museum wants to collect stories from each community to have a permanent place for them.
“It’s a story that’s different in each community, so the big picture isn’t known unless we tell it in a cohesive way. Through these celebrations I have been able to connect people who have stories relating to the original leg of the story between 1926 and 1941 and the other leg after it returned from Newfoundland in 1982 and in 1984 when Ship’s Company was founded on its deck.”
She said the Kipawo is also from a time when the Minas Basin was viewed by residents as a highway connecting Cumberland County to the Annapolis Valley as opposed to an obstacle to go around.
A group of Parrsboro area musicians, Bartlett’s Privateers, entertain during the 100th anniversary of MV Kipawo on the ship’s deck at Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro.
While it’s doubtful a ferry will ever return, Ryan said she can see a time when a tour company could possibly restore those connections from 80 years ago.
“Today it’s a four or five-hour trip opposed to an hour and a half on the boat which is the way it used to be,” Ryan said. “It is a celebration of the boat, but it’s also a celebration of the connection that once was and trying to renew those connections for future prosperity.”