MV Abegweit, owned by Columbia Yacht Club and permanently moored on Chicago’s lakefront, was the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world at the time of her commissioning in 1947. She served for nearly four decades as a ferry between mainland New Brunswick, Canada and Prince Edward Island. Her name is supposedly derived from the how the indigenous Mi’kmaq people used to call Prince Edward Island (Epekwit’k).

Her keel was originally laid down in the shipyards of Sorel, Quebec in 1943 and launched 1946. The ship spans 372 feet long, displacing 7,000 tons and in her heyday was powered by 8 engines totalling 10MW, which powered equal number of propellers both at the bow and stern. As a ferry Abegweit used to carry 950 passengers, 60 cars, or 16 passenger train cars (a whole train!).

She was decommissioned in early 1980’s and purchased by the Chicago’s Columbia Yacht Club shortly after. Interestingly, the City of Chicago would not allow any clubhouses to be built along its lakeshore, so as a masterful stroke of defiance, wit, and a cleverly veiled middle finger to the City’s bureaucrats, the Yacht Club purchased MV Abegweit, permanently moored at the pier and converted her into a year-round floating clubhouse for its members.