1952 Vacationland 1961 (1987)
Steel double ended double twin-screw automobile ferry
Built at River Rouge MI by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Hull 296
Keel laid May 1, 1950; launched April 7, 1951
Built with ice-breaking capabilities for year round service
360’ LOA, 345’ LBP, 73’6” beam, 25’3” depth
4 oil-fired diesel engines, 9440 BHP
Enrolled at Detroit MI
344.7 x 73.7 x 20.6, 3844 GT, 2614 NT US 262971 to:
State of Michigan, Department of Highways, Lansing MI
Entered service Jan 1952 ferrying automobiles and passengers across the Straits of Mackinac between Mackinaw City MI and St. Ignace MI
Laid up Nov 1, 1957 at Mackinaw City when the opening of the Mackinac Bridge resulted in discontinuance of automobile and passenger ferry service.
Sold 1959 to Detroit-Atlantic Navigation Co., Detroit MI and renamed Jack Dalton. Engaged in service carrying truck trailers across Lake Erie between Detroit MI and Cleveland OH. The service was unprofitable, the firm defaulted on its mortgage and the vessel was returned to the State of Michigan.
Sold 1961 for service on the lower St. Lawrence River and left the Great Lakes
Renamed Pere Nouvel (Can 313942) 1961, Sunshine Coast Queen 1967 and Gulf Kanayak 1982.
Sank Dec 3, 1987 in storm 100 miles west of Vancouver BC enroute across the Pacific Ocean towed by a Japanese tug for service in Japan
IMO 5428568
5222
The ferry was sold to Companie du Navigaccion N-S to serve as a ferry across the St. Lawrence River between Rimouski (Pointe au Pere) and Baie Comeau. She was renamed Pere Nouvel. After 5 years, the Canadian government subsidy ran out and though profitable, the major private investor felt a smaller ship would be more profitable on the route.
The Pere Nouvel was sold to the Government of British Columbia and a BC Ferries crew sailed her through the Panama Canal to Canada’s West Coast. As the Sunshine Coast Queen she served as a ferry across Howe Sound from Horseshoe Bay (North Vancouver) to Langdale, on the Seschelt Peninsula.
In 1977 rising fuel and maintenance costs, plus greatly increased traffic sidelined the ferry in place of newer, larger, and more efficient vessels. After a few years in layup, she was sold to Canarctic Ventures, to be converted to an oil drilling support ship on the Gulf of Alaska, for Gulf Canada Resources. She was renamed Gulf Kanayak. However before delivery, the bottom fell out of the oil markets and Gulf cancelled the deal.
The ferry then went through several speculative owners, but with vandalism and storage costs mounting, she was ultimately sold to Chenco, Inc, an American front for a Chinese salvage company which moved her to Seattle, to prepare her for a scrap tow to Nantong, China.
Leaving North America, the tow encountered heavy weather off the mouth of the Columbia River, and the ferry began taking on water. She sank on December 3, 1987 with no loss of life.
The scrap trip was a tandem tow with the WWII freighter Rose Knott. The Japanese ocean tug Hoshin #8 was in charge.