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A n n i v e r s a r y - cont'd. 12. tion. When the new boat was laid dow n by the John Inglis C o m p a n y Ltd. atop the harbour dock wall west of the foot of Spadina Avenue in 1935, the name assigned to her was COLUMBINE. However, before her launch, w h i c h took place when the C a n a d i a n Dredge & Dock C o mpany's big steam dredge LEYLAND lifted the ferry into the water in July of 1935, the ferry was f o r m a l l y given the name S H A M R O C K , as w hich she was r e g i s t e r e d under Official Number 158663. The name S H A M R O C K was chosen to honour an earlier, sharp-nosed, d o u b l e - e n d e d ferry steamer, whose h i s t o r y we r e v iewed in an earlier issue. The new S H A MROCK was com p l e t e d on October 16 th, 1935, and ran a nu m b e r of trial trips to Ward's Island. She m e a s u r e d 9 0 . 7 feet in length, 2 5 . 8 feet in the beam and 8 . 6 feet in depth, with tonnage of 238 Gross. Originally licensed to carry 350 passengers, this capac i t y was i n c r e a s e d to 500 in 1941, but redu c e d again in subsequent years. D uring the 1936 season, S H A MROCK was renamed W I L L I A M INGLIS, to honour the man whose firm built her and who had pa s s e d away shor t l y after her construction. The old name, SHAMROCK, however, can still be seen on the boat's brass bells, w h i c h hang on the front of each pilothouse. The INGLIS proved to be a very s u ccessful boat, and she was the p r o totype for the larger SAM McBRIDE, w h i c h was built in 1939 to replace the retired s i d e wheelers MAYFLOWER and PRIMROSE, and the THOMAS RENNIE, which was c onstructed in 1951 in a n t i c i p a t i o n that she w o u l d replace the big paddlers BLUEBELL and TRILLIUM. The INGLIS still runs r e g u l a r l y today. She has never had a major rebuild, but has had m a n y changes over the years. She has been r e - e n g i n e d twice, the c o n f i g u r a t i o n of the pilot h o u s e and lower cabin wind o w s has been d r a s t i c a l l y altered, and the a r r a n gement of the upper deck seating has been chan g e d to keep crowds of passengers away from the side rails. It is u n f o r t u n a t e that Metro Parks, current operator of the ferries, chose not to a c k n o wledge the 60th a n n i v e r s a r y of the INGLIS in a n y way, but we in T. M . H . S. celebrate the event and w i s h the INGLIS m any more years of service. * * * * * M A R I N E NEWS The "Gales of November" have struck the Great Lakes once again. Saturday, November 11th, 1995, Rememb r a n c e Day, was a day that bore a remark able s i m i larity to N o v e m b e r 11, 1940, the day of the famous A r m i s t i c e Day Storm. The weather started off rather warm, although very wet in the Toronto area. Just as in 1940, however, the weather chan ged v e r y quickly, and wit h dire results. This time, however, the storm claimed its v i c t i m on Lake Ontario, rather than on Lake Michigan. When a very sudden wind shift into the n o r t h west o c c u r r e d in the early evening, it caught the ULS C o r p o r a t i o n ' s s e l f - u n loader JAMES NORR IS loading stone at the St. Lawrence Cement Company's quarry dock at Colborne. (The usual run for the NORRIS is to take stone from Colborne up to the cement plant at Clarkson, Ontario, a route that keeps her on Lake Ontario most of the t i m e . ) When the w i n d changed, the p a r t i a l l y loaded NORRIS was trying to pull away from the e x p o s e d pier and stand out into the lake for safety, but she did not make it. Her stern was slammed into one of the circular m o o r i n g caissons and a twelve foot gash was torn in the steamer's port side aft. She rapidly took on water in her engine and boiler rooms and her stern settled to the bottom in 32 feet of water, the lake level coming almost to the spar deck. As well, the NORR IS had a h eavy list to port. Salvage crews of McKeil Marine Ltd. were called to the scene but early efforts were h a m p e r e d by c o n tinued bad weather. However, the NORRIS finally was raised a week after the sinking and she then was towed to Port Weller, where she was on d r y d o c k by N o v ember 21st. There has been no sugg e s t i o n that the ship might not be repaired, and for this we can be thankful, beca use the 1952-built NORRIS, c o nverted to a