5. Marine News - cont'd. In 1986, Upper Lakes Shipping sold for overseas scrapping the WHEAT KING, (a) LLANDAFF (60), which had been built as a tanker on the Clyde in 1953 and converted to a bulk carrier for lake service at Port Weller in 1 9 6 1 . But WHEAT KING was not scrapped in 1 9 8 6 and instead arrived at Rotterdam on January 2 3 , 1987, there to be used as a storage and transfer barge by Interestevedoring B.Y. No name appeared on her, and a photo taken of her at Rotterdam as late as February 15, 1 9 8 9 , showed her still in ULS colours except that the diamond on her stack was all black. Some sources indicated that she had been renamed BO CAT, but Lloyd's identified her new name as (c) BULK CAT. In the summer of 1 9 8 9 , however, she was resold to Bangladesh breakers and she left Rotterdam on August 22, bound for Chittagong in tow of the Soviet tug YASNYY. For her last trip, she was placed under St. Vin cent and the Grenadines registry and was renamed (d) BRUGSE I. The purchaser of LABRADOC (II) has been identified as Genav Maritime Co. Ltd. The 1 9 6 5 -built LABRADOC was sold by N. M. Paterson & Sons Ltd. late in 1 9 8 8 . She departed her lay-up berth at Montreal for Sorel on January 8, 1989, renamed (b) FALCON CREST and registered at Valletta, Malta. We earlier reported the August 22, 1 9 8 9 , foundering in Lake Superior off Marquette of the former Dunbar & Sullivan dredge NIAGARA, which was bound for Duluth (supposedly to become a restaurant) in tow of WILLIAM J. DUGAN. We knew little about NIAGARA, but it has now been confirmed that she was built in 1913 at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 135.0 x 44.0 x 11.0, 827 Gross and Net, for the Duluth-Superior Dredging Company. As of the last weekend in November, three ferries were operating on the St. Clair River crossing between Sombra, Ontario, and Marine City, Michi gan. For many years, only DALDEAN handled auto and passenger traffic at the crossing, but in recent years ONTAMICH has assisted in peak periods. Both ferries are owned by Blue Water Ferry Ltd., operated by Lowell Dal gety. With congestion on the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia, and with rede velopment of Sombra Village with forty new shopping sites, there has been an unprecedented increase in ferry traffic, requiring DALDEAN and ONTAMICH to operate continually and a third boat to be chartered from Champion Auto Ferry (which runs Algonac - Harsens Island) in peak periods. The new Drummond Island - DeTour Village passenger and auto ferry DRUMMOND ISLANDER III, after a perilous trip from the builders, went into regular service on November 11, and ceremonies to dedicate the boat were held on the 1 3 th. The ferry is owned by the State of Michigan and leased to the Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority. There is no word yet re garding disposal of the now-redundant ferry DRUMMOND ISLANDER I I . Upbound in the Seaway on November 2 9 th were the tugs ELMORE M. MISNER and STORMONT, towing two small spoil carriers which were lashed side-by side. They were MARIE-SOL, 379 Gross and built in 1951, and MARIE-LOU, 384 Gross and built in 1951. These ships were built as fishing vessels and have had extremely chequered careers. They apparently have been acquired by Hamil ton owners, believed to be the McKeil interests. The sailing ship DOMINO EFFECT, the former VICTORY CHIMES, will not come to the lakes to operate from Domino's Resort on Drummond Island. Environ mentalists protested the dredging near the shore of the island to accommo date the schooner and there was much dispute over the issue. Then, when the ship was at Albany, New York, recently, preparing to head into the lakes, one crew member was killed and another injured when the ship's masts were being taken down. Owner Tom Monaghan has since placed DOMINO EFFECT up for sale. Was her name, perhaps, an example of the "self-fulfilling prophecy"? The scrapping of the cement carrier ROBERT KOCH has been a much-protracted affair at Contrecoeur, where very little work actually was done over the years that the ship has lain there. On October 1 6 , the tug MANIC took the hull of the KOCH in tow at Contrecoeur, bound for Trois-Rivieres, where the vessel is to be dismantled at a site in the St. Maurice River. * * * * *