Charles J Lundgren (New York, Connecticut, 1911 - 1988) "Canadian Icebreaker - Northern Light" Original oil painting on masonite. Signed lower left. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the Canadian 14c Northern Light stamp issued November 15, 1978. Because Prince Edward Island is sheltered from the Atlantic by Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, it is free of fog and its waters are much warmer in summer than those of its neighboring provinces. But, in winter, the narrow Northumberland Strait, surrounding the island on three sides and never more than twenty-five miles wide, is frozen over preventing ready access to the mainland. This frozen strait and the vessels that first worked it have altered the history of this tiny province. One such ship that braved the ice-clogged strait was the Northern Light. Built in Quebec in 1876, she was 144 feet long and weighed nearly four hundred tons. lcebreaking technology was then embryonic, and the Northern Light was thought by many to be a feeble instrument with which to tackle the fierce grip of the strait. Still, for fourteen years she provided mail and passenger service between the mainland and Prince Edward Island. But transportation costs for the Northern Light were too high, and this remarkable ice vessel, one of the very first wooden ships to challenge the frozen north, was scrapped in 1890 after becoming a point of political contention between the Canadian government and the people of Prince Edward Island. Despite the difficulties of geography and transportation, the people of Prince Edward Island have long lived a life of rugged independence on the Northumberland Strait, where the regular run of the Northern Light was once a welcome beacon in the dead of winter. Image Size: 19.5 x 20.5 in. Overall Size: 22 x 26 in. Unframed. (B06162)