The "Arrow" was a single screw steel steam beam turbine tanker with a registered length of 529.4 feet, a breadth of 63 feet, and a depth of 37.5 feet, having a gross tonnage of 11,379.37 tons and a net tonnage of 6,897 tons. She was built by Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard Inc. at Maryland, in 1948 and contained twenty-seven tanks for carrying petroleum products, numbered one to nine from the centre, starboard and port wings.

The "Arrow" was owned by Sundstone Marine (Panama), being the main asset of that company, and was operated by Olympic Maritime of Monte Carlo, a company that managed some sixty-five ships totalling in excess of 35 million tons, once known as the (Aristotle) Onassis Fleet. The ships are oil tankers and bulk carriers ranging from 16,000 tons dead weight to 200,000 tons, most of which are less than ten years old. The "Arrow", being twenty-two years old in 1970, was the second oldest ship in the fleet. A separate company owned each ship managed by Olympic Maritime, and the majority of the ships were registered with the Republic of Liberia.

A Captain, officers, and crew of thirty-three, all except one of whom were Greek nationals manned the "Arrow". Although this was the first trip into Canadian waters with Capt. George Anastassopoulos in command, she had previously made fifteen satisfactory voyages to Canadian ports on the East Coast and the St. Lawrence. On March 31, 1968, Standard Tankers Co. Ltd. entered into a Tanker Voyage Charter Party Agreement with Imperial Oil Ltd. for the transport of petroleum products from loading ports in the Caribbean Sea for discharge in the East or West Canadian ports.

It was pursuant to these arrangements that the "Arrow" was loaded at Amuay Bay, Venezuela and directed to proceed with a cargo of approximately 16,000 tons of Bunker 'C' oil for delivery of the cargo to the Nova Scotia Pulp and Paper Mill in Point Tupper, Richmond County. At the time, the practice was for ships approaching Point Tupper to proceed beyond Cerberus Rock before taking on a pilot boat for the completion of the voyage, and this was the intention of the Captain on that fateful morning of February 4, 1970.