The Jeanie Johnston replica Famine ship, which was built in Tralee, Co Kerry, has been forced to pay an unexpected $12,000 (Canadian) in pilot fees. The charges were for navigating the ship upstream from Quebec city to Montreal. Anne Lucey reports.
The bill was presented as the Jeanie Johnston was about to sail downstream on Monday morning, and it was paid from donations by visitors who toured the ship in Montreal.
Mr Leo Delany, president of the local Jeanie Johnston committee in Montreal, called the fees "disgraceful" in yesterday's Montreal Gazette.
Three years ago the pilots told him there would be no charge, he claimed.
Montreal has attracted some of the biggest visitor numbers in the Jeanie Johnston's tour of more than 20 North American cities, with at least 8,000 people touring the vessel.
Mr Denis Pouliot, director of operations for the Laurentian Pilotage Authority, said the bill for pilot fees was less than it should have been and he had waived some charges.
Fees were determined by the length of the ship and its registry. The Jeanie Johnston was a foreign ship and it was longer than the 35 metres it claimed to be, he told the Gazette. It sometimes had to have two pilots on board.
Mr Denis Reen, chief executive of the Jeanie Johnston company, said the charges were unexpected.
It was the custom in most ports to treat tall ships differently. Negotiations were taking place with the pilotage and he did not want to say too much.
Yesterday the ship paid an emotional visit to the emigrant quarantine island of Grosse Ile, near the port of Quebec, on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada.
Among the dignitaries at a ceremony to mark the visit to the island, where thousands of Irish emigrants are buried, were the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr John Browne, and the Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Breandan Mac Gearailt (FF).
The Jeanie Johnston is due to sail home in mid-October, though as yet its future is uncertain.
The company formed to complete it and the transatlantic voyage is to be wound down at the end of the year.