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5. Marine N ews - cont'd. On Juno 29th, the tug J. A . WITTE (the former Now York tug ELIZABETH MORAN) and salvage barge WEEKS 297 were upbound at Sault Ste . Marie, bound for the site of the wreck of the U.S.C.G. MESQUITE on Keweenaw Point. The salvage crow, operating out of N ew Jersey, proceeded to the wreck and managed to lift the stranded buoy tender from her rocky porch. After the MESQUITE was stripped of all possible contaminants, her upper superstructure was remov ed and the vessel's hull was made as safe as possible for future inspection by sport divers. MESQUITE was then moved to a location in Keystone Bay, s e veral miles from the spot where she grounded last December. On Sunday, July 1 5 t h MESQUITE , was lowered back into the water and was allowed to sink to her final resting place in some 11 7 feet of water. Meanwhile, the Ensign who was navigating MESQUITE at the time of the stranding was docked $1,000 in pay and given a written reprimand, the Chief Warrant Officer was given a verbal reprimand for failing to control damage, and the commander of the buoy tender was placed in line for a court martial, all as a result of the Coast Guard's investigations into the strange circumstances of the loss of the ship. It will be recalled that, in the middle of the night, MESQUITE had been attending to the lifting of the summer buoy at Pinnacle Rock, off the tip of the Keew enaw Peninsula, one of the most dangerous and exposed areas on the entire Great Lakes, and MESQUITE was not the tender which nor mally was assigned to duty in that area. On April 23rd, the USS Great Lakes Fleet Inc. 1,000-footor EDWIN H. GOTT suffered a failure of the crankshaft of her starboard engine while the ship was downbound on Lake Superior with a cargo of taconite out of Two Harbors. She proceeded to the American Lakehead, where 8,000 tons of her cargo were transferred to her fleetmate, ROGER BLOUGH, on April 27. The GOTT cleared Duluth on May 3 , running on one engine pending the repair of the broken shaft. She had no trouble on the open lake,but the U.S. Coast guard, fear ing a traffic blockade if the ship should encounter difficulties in the con stricted waters of the St. Mary's River, ordered that she be accompanied by tugs, including one of at least 2,000 h.p. in the lower river above the Mud Lake Junction Buoy. Accordingly, the Great Lakes Towing Company responded with the Soo-based VERMONT, and called the more powerful MISSOURI (formerly Wellington's CHIPPEWA and, at 2,250 b.h.p. the most powerful of all the Gtugs) back from her new station at Detroit. Accordingly, MISSOURI would es cort the GOTT from the Junction Buoy in Lake Munuscong through Middle Nee bish Channel into Lake Nicolet on upbound trips. When the GOTT was down bound, both tugs would take her all the way from the lower Soo Harbour into Mud Lake. These arrangements w ere still in effect through mid-July and pro vided something a bit unusual for shipwatchers to see at the Soo. In previous issues, we reported on the preparations for the court-ordered May 2nd sale by auction of CLIPPER (MILWAUKEE CLIPPER) at Chicago in order to satisfy claims against the financially-embarrassed owners of the vessel, the Illinois Steamship Company. Many observers had taken it as a foregone conclusion that the venerable passenger steamer would be sold for scrapping, but much to the pleasant surprise of everyone, such was not the case. In fact, the ship was sold for $335,000 to the City of Hammond, Indiana, which will use CLIPPER as the centrepiece for a 1,100-slip municipal marina devel opment which is scheduled to open on April 1st, 1991. Total cost of the ma rina will be approximately $ 2 3 million. To b e incorporated aboard CLIPPER will be restaurant, nightclub, shower and office facilities, along with a games room, a museum, and possibly bed-and-breakfast lodgings. On June 9 th, the ship was towed away from her Chicago lakefront berth and was taken to a spot on the Calumet River, next to the former American Ship Building Compa ny site, near the 100th Street bridge. She will remain there until the nece ssary dredging has been completed at Hammond to accommodate her placement at her new home, and some of the renovation work required aboard the CLIP PER will be done whilst she is lying in the Calumet. The steamer, built in 1905 as (a) JUNIATA (II)(41) for the Anchor Line, is 3 4 9 .0 x 45.0 x 28.0, 4272 Gross and 3137 Net, and is still officially registered as (b) MILWAU KEE CLIPPER. We are very pleased that this historic steamer will remain on the lakes.