Name Chi-Cheemaun Cost CAD$10 million Construction started January 1974 Builder Collingwood Shipbuilding | Port of registry Canada, Owen Sound Length 111 m Launched 1974 | |
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Owner Owen Sound Transportation Company Operator Owen Sound Transportation Company Route Tobermory, Bruce Peninsula → South Baymouth, Manitoulin Island | ||
Ms chi cheemaun ferry ride
MS Chi-Cheemaun is a passenger and car ferry in Ontario, Canada, which traverses Lake Huron between Tobermory on Bruce Peninsula and South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island. The ferry connects the two geographically separate portions of Highway 6 and is the vessel that replaced MS Norgoma and SS Norisle in 1974. The ferry service runs seasonally from mid-May to mid-October.
Contents
Literally translated, "chi-cheemaun" (in folk orthography or chi-jiimaan in the more standard Fiero double vowel spelling) means "big canoe" in Ojibwe.
Ms chi cheemaun ferry
History
A trip aboard Chi-Cheemaun is a long standing Great Lakes tradition dating back to the 1930s when a small, wooden vessel, Kagawong, first ferried automobiles across the Georgian Bay between Tobermory and South Baymouth. It features a drive-on, drive-off bow and stern loading and unloading through a visored bow system and a square door stern section. The ship is 111 m (364 ft) with a 19 m (62 ft) beam and has capacity for 648 passengers and 143 vehicles, including room for large highway vehicles such as buses and transport trucks.
Chi-Cheemaun was initially powered by two Ruston 3500 horsepower (2.6 MW) diesel engines and an 800 horsepower (600 kW) bow thruster engine for improved handling of the vessel at slow speeds. During the 2006–2007 winter layover period, her Ruston engines were replaced with four Caterpillar V8 diesels. The addition of two mezzanine decks in 1982 increased the ship's vehicle carrying capacity to 240.
Like her predecessors on Lake Huron, Chi-Cheemaun is owned by Owen Sound Transportation Company Limited, an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and operated under contract to the Ministry of Transportation.
Chi-Cheemaun makes the 40 km (25 mi) trip in about one hour and 45 minutes, four times each day during peak season and twice a day during May and October.
From 1989 to 1992, her sister ship, MS Nindawayma, ran the same route, but was retired because of service problems leading to public dissatisfaction and sat rusting in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario until it was finally broken up in 2012.
Information radio
Two low power radio stations, CHEI-FM (89.9 FM in South Baymouth) and CHEE-FM (89.9 FM in Tobermory) broadcast tourist notices and schedule information for travellers on the ferry.
Facts
As of 2004, 85,000 vehicles 220,000 Passengers have been taken aboard Chi-Cheemaun.