MS Chi-Cheemaun


MS Chi-Cheemaun is a passenger and vehicle ferry in Ontario, Canada, which traverses Lake Huron between Tobermory on the 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.
Literally translated, "chi-cheemaun" means "big canoe" in Ojibwe.

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 vehicles 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 with a 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 diesel engines and an 800-horsepower 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.
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 trip in about one hour and 45 minutes, three times each day during peak season and twice a day during May/June and September/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 and CHEE-FM broadcast tourist notices and schedule information for travellers on the ferry.