Polar Prince

Fair be it to say that i like boats. Big boats, small boats, sail boats and steamers, it doesn't really matter. If it floats, i find it interesting. If it's run aground, perhaps even more so. I suppose this is perhaps a bit odd since i have never really spent much actual time on boats. Mostly i just admire them from the shore. As with all things i suppose, i am especially interested in boats that show the years of their sea-bound journeys proudly on their hulls. I also really enjoy finding abandoned, half sunk vessels along the shoreline and documenting the ravages of environment, the process of decay.
Whenever i am in Lunenburg, N.S. i always make sure to pay a visit to the docks. And while i might well pay a visit to the newly refitted Bluenose to take in its beautifully refurbished and maintained wooden decking, it is the old rust buckets that really draw my eye. There is one public pier down by the Dory Shop where i always pay a visit. The Lady Jane was a favorite subject of mine for a time, but she is long gone now. This summer i found the Polar Prince docked there. Her quick and dirty paint job couldn't hide her aging hull. Behind the rouge it can faintly be seen that she was previously the Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a class 100A medium-duty icebreaker, built in 1959 in Lauzon, Quebec. She was rebuilt in 1980, only to be sold as scrap very soon after, but for some reason she stayed in one piece long enough to be given new life in 2009 and put back to work.

(Please click on image to enlarge)

Polar Prince ©David Sorcher 2014