Ship Cover: M V Norweta, Mackenzie River

From a collection of covers from the far north of Canada, here is one from 1971: Fort Providence NWT, visit by ship M.V.Norweta.  No marks on backside.  Signed by the captain at bottom left and someone else at top left.  

Again, there is nothing fancy about the cover and the stamp is common.  It's not super old, but it clearly has a story.  It has a fine cachet of a ship working in a very remote part of the world.  You should check out this ship on nauticapedia: a great set of personal stories have been collected there.

The ship was launched in 1971 and the cover is from that first year.  The ship's name came from a nationwide contest among school children.  There is a quote from the winning student, who apparently got to ride the ship.  There are notes from crewmembers later in the ship's life, describing alterations for different types of service in different areas of northern Canada.

Check out this very detailed trip log from 2007: "NORTH DOWN THE MACKENZIE ON THE M/S NORWETA" by Jodie and Dale Wendel.

Here is the official retirement of the long-term owner in 2009.  While it has previously been described as handling 20 passengers, here it is a 108-foot ship fit for 18.

Here is another report, in 2011, in the Explore North Blog, where the ship is moored and waiting sale.

Here is a 2017 sighting reported on ShipSpotting.com.

The most current note about the ship's whereabouts is given in nauticapedia: circa 2020 it will be "relocated to Yellowknife and serve the remainder of her days as floating Airbnb and restaurant."  I was unable to find it in any current searches around Yellowknife (2025).

In this travelog posted in Dec 2022, there's a photo of the Norweta still aground in Hay River about halfway down the page. 

It's always interesting when one of my searches finds a treasure trove of detail and real-world history.

With credit to the site and photographer Greg Whitlock, and a hats off to #Philately and his "extreme philately" series, we couldn't help but hold up the cover to the photo.  These items do truly connect us to moments in history.




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