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11. Ship of the Month - cont'd. Back when Ye Ed. was a youngster and barely tall enough to see out of the pilothouse windows on the Toronto Island ferries, which then were operated by the Toronto Transit Commission, two of the senior captains in the ferry service were Herb Reynolds and Harold Baxter, both of whom were good enough to teach the boy how to take his turn at the wheel. These gentlemen were knowledgeable steamship men of many years of Great Lakes service and, inte restingly enough, both of them had served the Playfair fleet and had sailed in GLENFINNAN. Ye Ed. and his father both wish that we had been able to r e cord their reminiscences in detail, for both captains had interesting sto ries to tell about their experiences in GLENFINNAN and other Playfair boats. One other person we knew who had served in GLENFINNAN was the late T. M. H . S. member, Capt. Robert A. Sinclair, whose experiences aboard the steamer can be found on pages 93 through 97 of his 1977 book Winds Over Lake H u r o n . It is well worth reading for anyone who can locate a copy, and not only because of the GLENFINNAN stories! We do not have a print of the photo, else it would have appeared with this feature, but anyone who would like to see a picture taken aboard MAPLECOURT in 1937, showing RENFREW and PORTSMOUTH out in tandem "on the string" behind the big wrecker, should look in the otherwise unfortunate 1958 book The Sal vager, by Mary Frances Doner, which purported to be a biography of Capt. Tom Reid, the Sarnia wreckmaster. (The book contains many ina ccuracies. ) We know how much "Scanner" readers like us to follow-up on our features in later issues, with additional information and photographs, and so we shall be grateful to hear from anybody who has more detail about ALVA - M INN ETO N KA - GLENFINNAN - RENFREW. For our part, we promise to treat you all later to a look at the 1926 Young photo of GLENFINNAN in p a r t -Pl ayf air , partC . S. L. colours! * * * * * ON THE STEERING OF TOWBARGES Last month, our feature article (Ship of the Month No. 218) concerned the big consort barge BRYN MAWR (40), (b) BRYN BARGE, and we spoke a bit about the fact that she could be steered from either stern or bow to help keep her in line behind her towing steamer. Captain John Leonard has written to say that it was easier steering the barges from up forward when they were taken alongside the steamer, such as was normal at Big Point (downbound) or Mission Point (upbound) when approaching the Soo Locks, or when entering a port. Thus it was very handy (and much more comfortable) when some of the barges were given forward wheelhouses to cover their bow steering positions in latter years. John Leonard, himself, sailed in only one barge, that being the SAGAMORE (II)(47), (a) DAVID Z. NORTON (I)(04), (c) KENORDOC (II), which was acquired by the Paterson fleet in 1947. She was a bit different from most of the big towbarges, however, because she only had a forward wheelhouse; there wasn't one astern. John recalls that her steering engine was up forward, too, located right in the crew's hall, and that especially when the barge was loaded, the sound of it cranking and rattling away would keep everyone awake. Once a watch, the oiler would have to walk all the way up forward in order to oil the steering engine! John also reminds us thatwhen the Canadian barges, such as BRYN BARGE, were loaded with grain at the Canadian Lakehead, the local tugs would tow them back and forth from elevator to elevator as parts of the cargoes were picked up at the different grain houses.