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9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. casional trips with grain down to the ports of Georgian B a y . Her new ow ners did make various changes in the BOYCE to increase her cargo capacity and to render her more suitable for the grain trade. She was rebuilt with an additional deck, which was flush with the forecastle and the quarter deck, and hatches suitable for the working of grain were built into the new deck. Both the texas cabin and the upper pilothouse were cut away at this time, leaving the old lower pilothouse sitting rather forlornly on the flush forecastle but increasing open deck space. So that it would not interfere with loading and unloading legs at the elevators, the steamer's original heavy foremast was removed, and a short and virtually unraked pipe foremast was fitted immediately abaft the pilothouse. After the re construction, the Canadian List of Shipping showed the BOYCE's dimensions as 181.0 x 34.0 x 13.7 , 864 Gross and 478 Net Tons. MARY H. BOYCE had her hull painted black during the Paterson years, while her closed forecastle rail and taffrail were painted white. The deckhouses were white, and on the tall stack, which was painted black, appeared a lar ge white letter 'P'. Despite her relatively advanced years, the steamer somehow had managed to retain her good lines and her deck sheer. The little wooden steamers were not to serve the Paterson fleet for long, however, for the company soon began to expand its operations and to acqui re newer and more efficient tonnage. In 1923, N. M. Paterson & Co. Ltd. purchased the steel canallers THOMAS J. DRUMMOND (2 6 ), (b) CALGADOC (I), and J. A. McKEE (2 6 ), (b) THORDOC (I), which had been built in the U.K. in 1910 and 1 9 0 8 , respectively, and which had seen wartime service on salt water. Both were returned to the lakes in 1923 by the Canadian Government Merchant Marine and were acquired by Paterson shortly thereafter. In 1924, Paterson acquired from the Canadian Government Merchant Marine the "World War I Laker" type steamers CANADIAN ENGINEER and CANADIAN PATHFINDER, which had been completed in 1921 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company Ltd. at the Toronto yard of the defunct Dominion Shipbuilding Company Ltd. The Paterson fleet renamed these two steamers (b) NORMAN M. PATERSON (2 6 ) and (b) DONALD E. McKAY (2 6 ), respectively. They became (c) NEWBRUNDOC (I) and (c) NOVADOC (I) briefly in 1926, but were sold soon thereafter. During 1926, the Paterson firm was reorganized as Paterson Steamships Ltd., Fort William. That same year was one of great expansion for the fleet, as it acquired thirteen vessels from other operators, twelve of them upper la kers, and one (YUKONDOC) a canaller. In addition, orders were placed with Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. for the construction in the United Kingdom of five canallers for delivery during 1927. With all of this new tonnage in the fleet, MARY H. BOYCE, the last of the wooden-hulled ships in Paterson colours, saw very little service after 1926, and in 1928 she was damaged by fire at Fort William. As a result of the generally deteriorated condition of the venerable little steamer, it was not considered economically warranted to repair the damage. It was re ported that the remains of MARY H. BOYCE were towed out into Lake Superior later in 1928, and were scuttled in deep water. Her registry, however, was not closed until her documents were surrendered on August 14, 1936 . * * * Ed. Note; We are indebted to T.M. H. S. secretary, John H. Bascom, for put ting together much of the background detail for this story. Those wishing to learn more about the American Ship Building Company would do well to read Freshwater Whales, a history of the company and its predecessors by the late T.M. H. S. member, Dr. Richard J. Wright, published by Kent State University Press in 1969 . The history of the shipping operations of the Ontario Paper Company and its affiliates was reviewed by T.M. H. S. members Alan Sykes and Skip Gillham in Pulp & Paper Fleet, which was published in 1988 by Stonehouse Publications, St. Catharines, Ontario. * * * * *