Tuesday 23 February 2010

The Yarmouth To Bar Harbor Ferry circa 1983

BarHarbor_YarmouthRadioRoom_sm
A photo from my collection – taken in the early 80s aboard one of the CN ferries between Bar Harbor Maine and Yarmouth Nova Scotia. I had heard that the shipboard radio op was a ham so I had asked one of the crew if I could visit the radio room. I believe the ship was called the MV Bluenose; I don’t recall the radio operator’s name. You can see they were still using MV Bluenose sailed betwen Bar Harbor Maine and Yarmouth Nova Scotia until 1997morse for hourly reporting. The call letters on the red plaque just above the operator appears to be C6DZ. If any of the readers can help identify the ship or the operator please let me know. This type of radio room is from an era long gone I suppose, now replaced with satellite communications and no morse code.


CanadianMarconi_Yarmouth_sm
This photo was taken after arriving in Yarmouth, just up from the ferry terminal docks – another era long gone.

Links:
Maritime Radio Day – 2nd Weekend in April
Maritime Radio Telegram Award
Live Ships Map

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ship would be named MV Bluenose and the operator's name would be David Vail.
Additional vessel information can be found at http://yarmouthshipping.com/id83.html

Bob VE3MPG said...

Thank you anonymous for that information. Was David a licensed amateur?

david vail said...

Hello, Bob - I am the R/O in your photo of the radio room on the M.V. "Bluenose" registered in Nassau, Bahamas with the call sign C6DZ. She was the second Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry named M.V. "Bluenose" and your other ship photo shows the original M.V. "Bluenose," registered in Canada, with the call sign VDND. I served on both ships and 2 others in the Yarmouth to New England ferry service for a total of 34 years.

If you look up VE1GM on QRZ.com you'll see the radio room clock from C6DZ mounted above my ham
station desk.

If you'd like to know about any of the radio gear, send an email to ve1gm@rac.ca

73...Dave Vail