MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood

The MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" is a Marine Atlantic passenger/vehicle ferry which operates between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island in eastern Canada.

Named after former Newfoundland and Labrador politician Joseph R. Smallwood and his wife Clara.Entering service in 1989, she was built by MIL Davie Incorporated in Lauzon, Quebec, and is specifically designed for the 280 nautical mile (520 km) seasonal route across the Cabot Strait between North Sydney, NS and Argentia, NL.

A roll-on, roll-off design with a bow visor, the MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" has 2 vehicle decks and 5 decks above, the main passenger deck being Deck 5. She measures 179 metres in overall length and 25 metres in breadth, weighing 27,614 tons. Her capacity includes 1,200 passengers and 370 automobiles or 77 tractor trailers. She has up to 106 crewmembers.

Her sistership, the MV "Caribou"'s design had been commissioned by CN Marine in the early 1980s and was the culmination of years of research into effective icebreaking ship designs. The resulting hull design which MV "Caribou" and MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" were built to is called "Gulfspan", named in part after the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The "Gulfspan" hull is unique among Canadian icebreakers in that the ship slices through sea ice, rather than using its weight to ride up onto and crushing the ice underneath. This design permits the sister ships to maintain close to regular operating speed.

After the MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" replaced the MV "Ambrose Shea" in 1989, the North Sydney-Argentia crossing was reduced from 18 hours to a 14 hour schedule. During the fall, winter and spring seasons, MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" joins her sister ship MV "Caribou", along with MV "Leif Ericson" on Marine Atlantic's 96 nautical mile (178 km) primary route between North Sydney, NS and Channel-Port aux Basques, NL.

The MV "Joseph and Clara Smallwood" will be rebuilt in 2010 from hull up.