The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. 12. on the stern, on Tuesday, June 5th, 1984. Upon her arrival at Hamilton, FORT HENRY was found to be in good condition except for a terrible smell and mess, particularly in the forward cabins, resulting from a major infesta­ tion of pigeons. The arrival of FORT HENRY at Hamilton did presage the end of that steamer, but it proved not to be quite the end of the line for FORT YORK. The latter ship was sold in 1985 to Charpat Transportation Inc., and was then chartered to the Windsor Detroit Barge Line Inc., being towed in the upper lake barge trade first by the tug PRESCOTONT and latterly by TUSKER. The service did not last past the 1985 season and, laid up at the Point Edward freight shed, FORT YORK suffered severe fire damage to her bridge on September 11, 1987. She was scrapped in Brazil in 1988. FORT HENRY lay at the Strathearne Avenue scrapyard for a number of years, during which there was much discussion as to whether the steamer could be preserved as a marine museum somewhere. Eventually, her pilothouse and texas cabin, along with her forecastle head, were removed in one piece and were barged to Lock 3 of the Welland Canal on June 29, 1988. The steamer's bridge structure was installed on display in the vicinity of the Lock 3 Visitor Centre. Unfortunately, it was placed right alongside the canal roadway instead of being secured right beside the lock or the Visitor Centre, and vandals soon despoiled what once was a beautiful and meaningful exhibit. Since then, the vandalism has continued to an extent that prevents repair, and the display today lies forlorn and seriously damaged. The remainder of FORT HENRY was dismantled by United Metals during 1988 and 1989. This was a sad end to what once was Canada's "Flyer of the Lakes" and one of the prettiest of "modern" vessels. Of her package freight fleetmates, FORT CHAMBLY arrived for scrapping at Aliaga, Turkey, in September of 1989. while FORT ST. LOUIS was sold to Panamanian operators. FORT WILLIAM today operates as STEPHEN B. ROMAN for Essroc Cement; ESKIMO runs as MATHILDA DES­ GAGNES for Groupe Desgagnes Inc., and C. S. L. still runs ENGLISH RIVER, but in the cement trade for the Lafarge interests. * * * Acknowledgments: Your Editor thanks Ron Beaupre for putting together this feature and saving us a great deal of work during a very busy period. We are pleased to have been able to add quite a lot of additional information. We are deeply indebted to the late T. M. H. S. member Captain Harry Moore (please see the following obituary) for much of the early history of FORT HENRY. Special thanks also go to Capt. Moore's daughter Kim, as well as to Dan McCormick, Skip Gillham, Capt. Lyle Smith, Capt. "Bud" Playford, Capt. John Tackaberry, Capt. Gerry Ouderkirk, Gene Onchulenko, Clive Dudley, John 0. Greenwood, Henry Tupper, Russ Plumb, Tom Brewer, Jimmy Sprunt, the late Rob Sharik, the late Ivan Brookes, the Marine Historical Society of Detroit's publication "The Detroit Marine Historian", and its book Ahoy & Farewell II, assorted shipping registers, and the former Canadian monthly maritime magazine "Canadian Shipping", whose July 1955 issue provided much detail in respect of FORT HENRY. * * * * * THOMAS TURNS FIFTY It's difficult to believe that the Toronto Island ferry THOMAS RENNIE turns fifty years of age this month. Built by the Toronto Dry Dock Company for the Toronto Transportation Commission, she was christened on October 16th, 1951. Ye Ed. has always thought of the RENNIE as the "baby" of the fleet; the younger carferry ONGIARA we try not to think of at all. When the RENNIE was commissioned, her fleetmates were BLUEBELL of 1906, TRILLIUM of 1910, T. J. CLARK of 1911, WILLIAM INGLIS of 1935 and the RENNIE's near-sister SAM McBRIDE of 1939. We wish the RENNIE many more years of service.