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7. BRUCE HUDSON The S t o r y C o n c l u d e s Ship of the M o n t h No. 188 When we left the story of the tank barge BRUCE H U D S O N in the F e b r u a r y issue, the Good Rich Oil Company had taken over control of Lloyd Re fi n e r i e s Li mi t e d and its plant at Port Credit, Ontario. The r ef in er y' s lake sh ip pin g affiliate, Lloyd Tan ke rs L i m i t e d (still owned and op er a t e d by Lorne Bruce Lloyd), had come to the c o n c l u s i o n that the con ti nu ed op e r a t i o n of BRUCE H U D S O N as a barge was both di f f ic ul t and dangerous, and the de ci s i o n had been made to have the H U D S O N r e c o n s t r u c t e d as a s e l f - p r o p e l l e d tanker. At that point, we now begin the third and final ins ta lm en t of the h i s t o r y of this most i n t e r e s t i n g little vessel. Over the wi nt er of 1938-1939, the BRUCE H U D S O N lay at the ship yar d of the Muir Bros. Dry Dock C o m p a n y Ltd. on M a r t i n d a l e Pond above Lock One at Port Dalhousie. There, she was re built with a length of 1 7 2 . 0 feet, a beam of 3 0 . 0 feet, and a d ep th of 1 5 . 2 feet, these d i me ns io ns giv ing her tonnage of 753 Gross and 398 Net. Her mo ti ve power was su pp li ed by two triple e x p a n s i o n steam engines wi t h cyli nd ers of 10 1/8, 1 6 1 /2 and 27 inches, and a stroke of 15 inches. These eng in es had been built bac k in 1909 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company Ltd., and had come out of the old p a s se ng er st eamer WAUBIC (38), (b) ERIE ISLE (42), (c) PRI NCE NOVA, w hi ch l at te rl y had been o p e r a t e d on the Pelee Isl and ferry service by Capt. J. E. McQueen, of Amh e rs t b u rg , Ontario. WAU BIC had been badly dam ag ed by fire dur ing J a nu ar y of 1938, and du r i n g 1938 had been rebuilt and r e p ow er ed for M c Q u e e n at the Mu i r B r o s . shipyard. The H U D S O N was fi tt ed with a s i n g l e - e n d e d Sco tch boiler, 13'2" by 11'6". It came from the r e t i r e d Ca na da St e a ms hi p Lines bulk carrier MA R T I A N (I), (a) MARS (I)(13), w h i c h had been built in 1901 by the Detr oit S h i p b u i l d i n g C om pa ny at Wyand ot te , Michigan, and w h i ch was sc ra ppe d in 1938 at H a m i l t o n after a leng thy pe ri od of id leness at Toronto. The boiler was set a t h w a r t s h i p whe n it was pl ac ed in the H U D S O N in 1939, and at the same time it was con v e r t e d to burn oil. (It should be noted that M A R T I A N had two similar boilers, but BRUCE H U D S O N r e ce iv ed only one of t h e m . ) As rebuilt, BRUCE H U D S O N was a rather smart little tanker. She had, for the first time, something other than flush decks, and was given a half f or eca stl e with a cl osed steel rail at the forward end of the for ec as tl e head. A small, f i v e - w i n d o w e d pi lothouse, ra ise d a ha l f - d e c k level above the spar deck, was set back off the forecastle, and a texas cabin was pla ced abaft the piloth ou se . The fo remast rose out of the texas, and the two life boa ts were c a r r i e d on the spar deck, one on each side abaft the bridge structure. A large new d e c k h o u s e was c o n s t r u c t e d aft, and it spo rt ed an ov er ha ng of the roof all the way around it. (We cannot call the top of the after cabin the boat deck because, of course, there were no li feb oat s t h e r e ! ) The rather short but h e a v y smokestack, w hi ch was sl ig htl y raked, rose from the for war d part of the deckhouse, and abaft it was the mainma st, thick near its base but only a slim pipe for most of its length. Two pr omi nen t v e n t i l a t o r cowls were p o s i t i o n e d near the funnel. The H U D S O N was a much more i m p r e s s i ve vessel as a steamer than she had been as a lowly barge. As well as the power to m a n oe uv re pr op e r l y and keep her se lf out of n a v i g a t i o n a l trouble, she now had some re la t i v e l y decent f r e eb oa rd when r u n n i n g loaded. Nev er th el es s, her deck still was wet in -almost almost any kind of a sea, and after a while rai sed catwalks were added to a ll ow cr e w m e m b e r s safe passage up and down the deck in heavy weather. The steamer had large w o o d e n fender strakes mounted on the turn of her hull at bow and stern, and she car ri ed two n o r m a l - s i z e d anchors housed in pockets cut into the hull near the stem, below the forecastle.