Former Bay Ferry Still In Service

(Picture and article courtesy shoredailynews.com)

Ever get nostalgic about riding the Chesapeake Bay Ferries?

One of the ferries that formerly plied the waters between Kiptopeke and Cape Charles is still in service. The ferry Virginia Beach was put in service by the Virginia Ferry Commission in 1959. The Virginia Beach was a converted World War II LST that was used originally in the invasion of Normandy. Along with the Pocohontas, Delmarva, Old Point Comfort and the Princess Anne, the Virginia Beach was sold to the Cape May Lewis Ferry Company in 1964 after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel opened.

The Virginia Beach was renamed the Cape Henlopen and served on that route until the mid seventies according to Captain Richard Belote, a former captain of the Princess Anne and a long time employee of both the Virginia and Delaware ferries. At that time the ferry was sold to the Cross Sound Ferry Company to run between New London Connecticut and Oient Point on the northern tip of Long Island New York where she continues to serve today.

The Cape Henlopen is the only original ferry from the fleet to survive. The Pocohontas, Delmarva, Northampton and Old Point Comfort were scrapped, the Princess Anne is now a fishing reef off of Palm Beach Florida and the Accomac was being refurbished to send to the Amazon River when she caught fire in a Norfolk shipyard and was declared a total loss. All of the older ferries were of mid 1930s or 1940s vintage with the Accomack being rebuilt from the old Virginia Lee to accommodate automobiles only.

The Cross Sound Ferry Company apparently intends to continue to use the Cape Henlopen for a while longer. A photo on their web site shows the boat in dry dock in 2009 where she received new engines.