Charles Boudreau remembered that I was into information a while back on the ferries  that operated between Canso and Mulgrave, and sent this along to me.  The article appeared in the  Port Hawkesbury Reporter (date unknown but suspect it was about 1995)  and was written by Jo-Anne MacDonald of  The Reporter...
Arlene MacDonald

The O-WE-RA docked at the Government Wharf in Arichat sometime in the 1930's.

"PORT HAWKESBURY - Although decades have passed since the O-WE-RA sailed the Canso to Mulgrave run, the steamship has not been forgotten.

Port Hawkesbury contractor Mark Boudreau has built a replica of the ship that once served as Guysborough County's link to the rail line in Mulgrave.

The model measures 47 inches long and is made of teak, the same wood used to build the O-WE-RA in 1907 in Leith, Scotland.  With its cloth sails and brass railings, the model is just as two former crew members remember the original.

John Meunier of West Arichat, who was a mate on board the O-WE-RA, and former deckhand Charlie MacDonald of Janvrins Island, supplied Boudreau with much of the information he wasn't able to get from London, England, where the O-WE-RA is registered.  The wife of the ships' captain, the late Herb Lukeman of Canso, sent him photos of the O-WE-RA, showing details undetectable in the blueprints.

For the vessel's history, Boudreau went to Art Langley whose father owned the shipyard in Port Hawkesbury.  Langley's ship, the Fairmorse, took over the O-WE-RA's route in 1955.  While he knew her as a cargo-carrying steamship, Langley recalls the lavish appointments of the O-WE-RA's earlier days.

"She was the last word in luxury as a yacht," says Langley.

An American commissioned Ramage and Ferguson Co. to build the O-WE-RA. During prohibition she became a rumrunner until the Coast Guard seized the ship.  Sydney businessman W.N. MacDonald bought the O-WE-RA at an auction and had it refitted to carry passengers and freight from Canso
to Mulgrave.

A crew of 12 working more than 40 hours a week made the run six days a week.  Some of the ship's front staterooms were converted into a cargo hold and everything from fish to livestock to mail was transported.

Passengers paid $1 for the hour-and-a-half trip to Mulgrave from Canso and an extra fifty cents for a meal.

During World War 11 the O-WE-RA was chartered to the Department of National Defence to patrol the port of Halifax.  In 1945 the ship was returned to MacDonald and put back on the Canso to Mulgrave run.  Just seven years later, the O-WE-RA failed a safety inspection and was hauled to Sydney where it sank one winter.  In 1967 during Canada's Centennial year a clean-up of the Sydney waterfront dredged up the O-WE-RA and another of MacDonald's ships, the Ulna.

The model is Boudreau's latest and it has the most personal significance.  His father, Amadee Boudreau who passed away nine years ago, sailed on the O-WE-RA but worked mostly on her sister ship and
Boudreau's next project, the Surf.

The O-WE-RA will be on display this month at the Maritime Museum in Halifax.

Captain    Herb Lukeman, Canso
Mate - John Meunier, West Arichat
Purser - Billy Lavers, unknown
Deckhands - Clarence Hart, Janvrins Island
                    Wilfred Kelly, Canso
                    Charlie MacDonald, Janvrins Island
                    Everett Dorey, Janvrins Island
                    Victor Avery, Canso
Chief Engineer - James Shanahan, Canso
Second Engineer - Ben Lumsden, Canso
Firemen - Colin Lumsden, Canso
                Albert Lumsden, Canso
Cook - Godfrey Boudreau, Arichat
Second Cook - Amadee Covin, West Arichat"