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MARINE NEWS In recent issues, we have commented upon the retirement of the venerable Bob-Lo Island steam ferries COLUMBIA and STE. CLAIRE, and their November sale to the Baja Beach Nightclub Company, the current operator of the bar and restaurant facilities on the old carferry LANSDOWNE at Detroit. It has been suggested that one of the steamers would be permanently moored near the LANSDOWNE, with boutiques and restaurants aboard, while the other would would be kept in active service to make two trips daily, a "happy hour cruise" from 6: 00 to 9: 00 p. m., and a "high-energy" moonlight from 11: 00 p. m. to 2: 00 a. m. Many observers felt that COLUMBIA would be permanently moored, and the smaller and more economical STE. CLAIRE would operate, but recent reports indicate that it will indeed be the older (1902) COLUMBIA that is kept in operation. The G-Tugs SUPERIOR and ARIZONA moved both COLUMBIA and STE. CLAIRE from their Clark Street dock to the Nicholson slip at Ecorse on November 22nd. If either steamer is to operate in 1992, she will need a five-year drydocking for inspection before fitting out. It was only back in the winter of 1986-1987 that the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker JOHN A. MACDONALD received a $6. 7 million refit at Port Weller Dry Docks. Nevertheless, the MACDONALD, 294. 9 feet long and built in 1960 at Lauzon, Quebec, was officially retired on Monday, December 2nd, at Halifax. It has been said that the MACDONALD was in need of further extensive repairs, and that the large expenditure of funds necessary for the work could not be justified at this time. As a consequence of a $5, 000 donation received from William White (brother of H. Lee), the H. Lee White Marine Museum at Oswego, New York, has been able to acquire from the Buffalo District of the U . S. Army Corps of Engineers, the tug NASH. The 114-foot tug, built in 1943 at Oyster Bay, Long Island, was originally named MAJOR HENSEN, but was rechristened (b) NASH in 1946 to honour a former senior engineer of the Buffalo District. It is said that the tug took part in the 1944 Normandy Invasion, and shot down an enemy plane. The Oswego museum reportedly will have the NASH refitted and in 1992 there will be tours of Oswego harbour conducted aboard the tug. During the evening of 30th November, the American Steamship Company self unloader ST. CLAIR took part in a most unusual rescue effort on Lake Huron off Port Hope, Michigan, north of Harbor Beach. The pilot of an A-7 jet fighter, from the 180th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Toledo, ejected from his plane (for unknown reasons) and landed inthe water. In the 40-knot winds, and with 8 to 10 foot seas, the hapless pilot was dragged along the surface by his open parachute. ST. CLAIR chased the chute for over two hours, but when she finally caught up to it and placed herself upwind from it to create a lee, the parachute collapsed and sank, presumably taking the pilot with it, for despite boat and helicopter searches, he was not seen again. On November 14th, the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation held a rechristening ceremony at Massena, New York, for its 103-foot, 1958-built tug ROBINSON BAY. The tug, since April, had been at the Cleveland yard of the Great Lakes Towing Company, where she was given a $2. 5 million refurbishing. Included in the work were the installation of a new 2 , 150 H . P. diesel engine, the fitting of a Kort Nozzle for steering, the addition of a new upper pilothouse for better visibility, the lengthening of her stack, and the replating of her bow. The rechristening of ROBINSON BAY was done by Martie Parris, wife of the Seaway Corporation's administrator, Stanford E. Parris. The first new and major construction project along the banks of theWelland Canal in many years involves a $1 . 5 million dock to be completed at Port Robinson. Occupying part of the facility will be E. S. Fox Ltd., the steel and mechanical fabricator of canal shunter "fame". Fox, apparently, has the contract for the conversion of the tanker barge ST. MARY'S CEMENT II, (a) VELASCO (82), (b) CANMAR SHUTTLE (90), into a cement-carrying barge. Handled