Nineteen sixty-eight was the first year of service for the $14 million John Hamilton Gray. A very capable icebreaker, the Gray was used between Borden and Cape Tormentine during the winter months and spent the summer seasons carrying traffic between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. This sternloader was 400 feet long, 61 feet wide, generated 16000 horsepower and had a capacity of 165 autos. The Gray will also be remembered as the last ferry to carry railcar traffic from the island on December 28th 1989. Almost seven years later, December 21st 1996 it made news headlines after becoming beached on a sand bar in Borden Harbor due to high winds. It took three days to free the vessel. Ironically, the final span of the new Confederation Bridge was installed just days before, although it would not be completed until the next summer. Being stuck aboard a ferry on the Northumberland Strait in winter was soon to become a thing of the past. ( I wish I could have been there.) The aerial view of the Borden terminal shows the John Hamilton Gray and the Confederation. Today it's called the Contessa 1 and is a cruise/casino ship sailing from Florida to the Bahamas. My guess is it won't be required to break much ice down there. Click here to see Contessa 1

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The 1969 addition to the CN fleet was the Lucy Maud Montgomery. Built in France in 1965 as the Stena Danica, she was fittingly renamed to honor the famed author of "Anne of Green Gables". She was a Ro-Ro and also had a bow visor- a first on the Strait. Cost was $4.2 million. In her first year of service, she helped out on the Newfoundland service. The LMM had a capacity of 80 cars. In 1973 she was sold to CTMA and used on a route between Souris, PEI and Cap-aux-Meules, Iles-de-la-Madeleine until 1998. Today she is called the Caribe 1 and is a casino ship in Florida waters.