On December 19, 1827, a new mail service began from Cape Traverse across the icy Northumberland Strait to Cape Tormentine. The ice boat, small, sturgy, and fitted with runners, could be used in water or on ice, and soon became standart equipment for the service. With calculated during, ice boat expeditions conquered drifting ice and sudden storms to bring passengers and mails safely to land. Until the first car ferry ice breaker began duty in 1917, the Capes Ice Boat Service afforded the quickest and most reliable means of winter communication between Prince Edward Island and the mainland. Erected in 1970 at Cape Traverse, Prince Edward Island.