New ferry begins regular service to Grassy Island historic site
CANSO — After a three-year hiatus, and with the sun not yet over the yard arm of the summer tourist season, regular ferry service to the iconic Grassy Island Fort National Historic Site will resume this week, say officials with Parks Canada and the Canso Historical Society.
“[We are] pleased to announce that a successful bidder [to provide the service] has been awarded the contract,” Parks Canada spokesperson Adam Young told The Journal in an email on July 5. “Visitors will once again be able to experience and connect with the significant cultural and natural landscapes of the island, part of Canso Islands National Historic Site.”
Sydney-based marine tour operator Boatworks is expected to start running the twice-daily, four-kilometre return trips to the site’s visitor interpretation centre on the Canso waterfront “probably on Wednesday [July 10],” said Bill MacMillan, president of the Canso Historical Society, which operates the centre and has been consulting with the national parks service on returning the ferry since its demise in 2021.
“[Parks Canada] just copied me on the boat owner’s [most recent note] note to them, [which says] they’re doing their best to have the boat in Canso on Monday [July 8], latest on Tuesday, to start operating ASAP,” he told The Journal in a telephone interview on July 6. “So, I informed the staff down there at the interpretative centre today that in responding to [public] inquiries, they should say that we expect to be up and operating with the boat on Wednesday.”
Regardless of last-minute scheduling wrinkles, he said, it’s happening and not a moment too soon. The trouble began prior to the 2022 visitor season, when the local vessel that Parks Canada had been contracting for several years – a large, repurposed fishing boat, The Special K – had aged out. Since then, Young stated in his email last week, “Parks Canada has been actively seeking a new boat operator and soliciting proposals for a new contractor to operate a boat service. Up to this point, our past attempts had been unsuccessful.” Finally, though, “A tendering process was conducted seeking a new operator with their own boat [for which] the submission period closed on June 27.”
According to Andrew Prossin, owner and operator of Boatworks, the new ferry is a 30-foot rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) with “a little cabin,” evocatively named The Protector, capable of transporting eight-to-10 people at a time.
“We’re in the process of finalizing [the hiring] of a local captain, so I can’t say much about that,” he told The Journal in a telephone interview on July 5. “But, we are very excited to get this off the ground. This is an important site. There is important history there.”
MacMillan, for one, couldn’t agree more. Despite the challenges associated with reinstating the ferry, he said Parks Canada has never lost sight of the site’s local significance.
“We’re happy to be working with [them],” he told The Journal in May. “They’re replacing the floating docks that were over at Grassy Island. In addition, they’re installing floating docks to replace the old wharf, which kind of got destroyed [over time], at the interpretive centre.”
In his email, Young said, “For years, Canso Islands National Historic Site has offered visitors free access via boat to Grassy Island. An interpretive trail and panels explain the human history of the island, focussing on its settlement by New Englanders around 1720, telling the tale of the following tumultuous decades, culminating with the burning of the settlement in 1744, shortly after the declaration of war between England and France.”
He added: “Parks Canada has a vested interest in the success of Canso and is committed to working together with other organizations to grow local tourism.”
Ferry service to the Island is scheduled daily, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., until Monday, Sept. 2.
Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal
