I went across the Gulf from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia on the Atlantic Freighter in 1996 by accident. I was heading to Texas to work in Brownsville in mid October. I had driven across the island and typical of quite a few other intrepid traveller's, hadn't bothered to book a reservation ahead of time. I had lots of time so I just waited in the overflow on "standby" just like when traveling on an airline. Everyone showed up, so I was told that I would have to wait and see the next morning and I had settled in my little Mazda 323 for a chilly overnighter. Around sometime before midnight I was startled awake by knocking on my window. Here was a Marine Atlantic guy offering me a berth on the Atlantic Freighter because some truckers couldn't make it. Normally this vessel is for commercial traffic only. I gladly took it and even got a four berth room all to myself. What made the trip really special was what woke me around 3 in the morning or so. Now, I don't have a huge amount of sea going experience as some of the hands here, but I was surprised that I could sense the vessel having stopped making way. Not wanting to be further surprised for who knows what, I quickly dressed and headed out on deck to see what was what. No sooner than I stood on the deck when a DND Aurora roared overhead and did a banking turn. At that time I looked to the port and saw a lifeboat that the ferry had came alongside. Finally, a crew of fishermen climbed aboard, apparently having abandoned their sinking vessel. It made for quite an exciting trip. The weird thing was I couldn't find any information on CBC Radio the next day as I drove across the maritimes heading for the USA.
So for me a memorable time aboard the Atlantic Freighter.