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KNOW YOUR SHIPS 2002 2. The 2002 issue of Know Your Ships, edited and published by longtime T. M. H. S. member Roger LeLievre, is now available. This directory of Great Lakes ships, together with salt-water vessels that visit the lakes, follows the usual handy format and is crammed with excellent colour photographs. We find it particularly useful in that it includes tugs and small excursion vessels, and is fully indexed. This is the 43rd annual edition of the directory. The 144-page softcover is available at many book and gift stores around the Great Lakes, and Toronto readers will find it at Lynx Images, 104 Scollard Street (Yorkville). Or address Marine Publishing Co., P. O. Box 68, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan 49783, or on the web at wvw. knowyourships. c o m . The price is U. S. $14. 95 plus $4. 00 p&p to U. S. and Canadian addresses. * * * * * MARINE NEWS Over the years, a significant number of ships have encountered difficulties whilst downbound at Sault Ste. Marie and making the Bayfield Turn to head down into Little Rapids Cut. The accidents usually have happened in fog, and have put the ships aground in the area of rocky Mouse Island on the east side of the north end of the cut, opposite Mission Point. The latest vessel to run into difficulties there was the Algoma Central seIf-unloader ALGOWOOD which, on the morning of April 15th was downbound from Duluth with coal for Nanticoke. After fog in the night, ALGOWOOD was the first downbound vessel cleared to proceed, but as she neared Mission Point, fog set in again. At about 9: 15 a. m., the ship grounded in the Mouse Island area, dropped anchor, and apparently became snagged on the anchors for the channel's winter ice boom. Her stern then swung across toward the west side of the cut, complete­ ly blocking the navigation channel. Her Number One port ballast tank was holed and she took on water and assumed a considerable list to port. The list was corrected with the flooding of ballast tanks on the starboard side, and the ship's condition was stabilized. On the morning of the 16th, ALGOWOOD was pulled free by the Purvis Marine tug AVENGER IV and the G-Tugs MISSOURI and FLORIDA. An audible grinding sound accompanied her refloating, just as it had sounded at the time of the original grounding. Shortly before 10: 00 a. m., after the stern-first tow up­ river, ALGOWOOD was secured at the Carbide Dock at the Michigan Soo, and two and a half hours later, traffic on the river was given the approval to get underway. An inspection of ALGOWOOD indicated that she was damaged suffi­ ciently that she could not finish her voyage, and the upbound ALGOSOO was brought alongside so that ALGOWOOD could off-load her cargo into her. That work was finished during the evening of the 18th, with ALGOSOO then heading downbound for Nanticoke, and ALGOWOOD upbound for the Pascol shipyard at Thunder Bay. ALGOWOOD arrived at Thunder Bay late on April 19th, and was al­ most immediately placed on the drydock, where work began on cutting away considerable plating along her lower port side forward. Readers will recall that this is not the first time that ALGOWOOD has had to be drydocked for the repair of major damage. In June of 2000, ALGOWOOD broke her back in a loading accident at Bruce Mines. She then spent considerable time on the drydock at Port Weller for repairs and lengthening. * * * The International Steel Group Inc., the new operator of the former LTV Steel Corporation's plants, announced in mid-April that it had reached agreement on a contract with its employees, and would be resuming operations during the early summer. The Cleveland facilities apparently will be restarted first, followed by the Indiana Harbor plant. It also was announced that Cle­ veland-Cliffs had acquired a 7% share of ISG, and had signed an agreement with the new steel producer to supply ISG with some five million tons of taconite pellets each year for the next fifteen years.