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5. WINDSOLITE, Ship of the Month No. S I M C O L I T E and A C A D I A L I T E R E V I S I T E D 193A In the issue of December, 1991, we fe atured as our Ship of the M onth No. 193 the Im per ial Oil Li mi t e d c a n a l - s i z e d tank steamers WINDSOLITE, S I MCOLITE and ACADI AL IT E. These n e a r - s i s t e r s h i p s were built by the Fu rness S h i p b u i l d i n g C o m p a n y Ltd. at H a v e r t o n H i l l -on-Tees, England, as Hulls 115, 170 and 171, re spe cti vel y, w it h W I N D S O L I T E co m p l e t e d in 1927 and the other two in 1930. W I N D S O L I T E was re na m e d (b) IMPER I A L W I N D S O R in 1947, was sold in 1972 to Be a u c h a m p In ve st m e n t s Ltd., of Corunna, Ontario, and in 1973 was r esold to the A l g o n q u i n C o r p o r a t i o n Limited, which rena m e d her (c) C A R D I N A L (III). She was se verely da ma g e d in a May 23, 1974, col l i s i o n w ith the steamer H E N R Y S T E I N B R E N N E R (III) on Lake Erie, and was scrapped at H a m i l t o n later in 1974. SIM C O L I T E became (b) IMPERIAL SIMCOE in 1947, and never sailed for any other fleet. She re mained with Imperial Oil until sold for s c r apping in Spain du rin g 1965. A C A D I A L I T E was re na m e d (b) I M P ERIAL C O R N W A L L in 1947 and l a t terly se rved the b unk ers trade at Halifax. She was sold in 1971 to Penn S h i pping Ltd., of Guelph, Ontario, and later that same year to Messrs. M o t t e r s h e a d and M a c L e a n of Toronto, who ac ted for the Neal P e t r o l e u m Comp a n y Ltd., of Toronto. The ship made only one trip for them, under the name (c) G O L D E N SABLE. She was sold in 1972 to Steel Factors Ltd., Montreal, for scrapping, and she lay at L oui se vi ll e, Quebec, for a number of years before a c t u a l l y being dismantled. Our feature on these three i n t e r e s t i n g little steam tankers provo k e d a great deal of re spo nse from our readers, some of w h o m a c t ually served aboard these boats, but most of w h o m simply r e m e m b e r e d seeing them come and go about their rou tine duties for so man y years. It is indeed difficult to believe that more than twenty years have passed since these ships went out of I m p e rial Oil service; it seems that it was only y e s t e r d a y that we hea rd their d i s t i n c t i v e w h i s t l e s calling for the Cherry Street bridge here in Toronto. Our readers re s p o n d e d to the feature with a welter of addi t i o n a l inform a t i o n about IMP ER IA L WINDSOR, IMPERIAL SIMCOE and IMPERIAL CORNWALL, and we have been saving the follow-up items until we had sufficient space to present all of the new m a t e r i a l at once, rather than having it appear piecemeal over a numb er of issues. We hope that our readers approve and enjoy the a d ditional detail. The first of the "new" items is a press report from Parry Sound, Ontario, d ate d Tuesday, Ap ril 12, 1932: "With the arrival of WINDSOLITE and A CAD IA LI TE , of the Imperial Oil Co. today, n a v i g a t i o n was offic i a l l y opened here. They ca rr ie d cargoes of fuel oil and gasoline. The W I N D S O L I T E u n l o a d e d 2 3 5 ,000 barrels (sic - read "gallons" - E d . ) of fuel oil, and the A C A D I A L I T E 1 1 7 . 000 barrel s (sic) of gasoline. The A C A D I A L I T E left later for Co l l i n g w o o d w it h the balanc e of her c a r g o . " This same pair of tankers r e p e a t e d their joint p o r t - o p e n i n g trick nine years later. A report from Port Stanley, Ontario, dated Monday, M arch 31st, 1941, stated that "The earliest open i n g of n a v i g a t i o n in the m e m o r y of most l a k e side f i sh er me n saw the arrival here on S a t u r d a y (March 29) of two tankers, the A C A D I A L I T E and the WINDSO LITE ". As we shall see, it was not unusual for an Imperi al Oil tanker to be the first ship of the year into m any C a n a d i a n lake ports. Meanwh ile , however, the A C A D I A L I T E got hers e l f into some rather severe trouble du rin g the summer of 1940. The f o llowing item, dat e l i n e d Tobermory, Tuesday, July 2nd, 1940, was filed by E. H. Bartlett, a staff reporter for "The Ev en in g Telegram", of Toronto. "St ra nd in g du rin g a thick fog at four o'clock Saturday m o r n i n g (June 30th), the Imperia l Oil tanker A C A D I A L I T E is agro u n d at Gat Point, on Cove Island, at the Lake H ur on entrance to G e o r g i a n Bay. Fully laden with about 2 2 , 000 ba rre ls of fuel, she is r e p orted to have lost about 1 0 , 000 barrels of her