Parrsboro Celebrates 100th Birthday of the MV Kipawo
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.
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 1940, 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.
Parrsboro Celebrates 100th Birthday of the MV Kipawo
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.
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 1940, 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.