Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 22, no. 9 (Mid-Summer 1990), Mid_Summer 1990, p. 6

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Marine Nows - cont'd. A Juno report from the World Ship Society indicated that the former CanCoast Marine Inc. tanker COASTAL CANADA, (a) B A PEERLESS (6 9 ), (b) GULF CANADA (84), arrived at the breakers at Alang, India, on March 22, 1990. The vessel had b een sold to Indian Shipbreakers via Incom Ltd., of London, England. We earlier had reported the departure of COASTAL CANADA from Hali fax under tow. Back in the January issue, we reported that the self-unloading motorship COALER 1, (a) HALLFAX (81), had been sold for scrapping, allegedly to Hong Kong breakers. In fact, a report from the World Ship Society indicates that the ship w ent eventually to Indian breakers, and arrived in tow at Alang on March 13, 1990. The report also confirms that the vessel was renamed (c) LAKER for her trip to the breakers. Of course, this self-unloader began her life back in 1 9 6 2 when she was built at Port Glasgow, Scotland, for the Hall Corporation fleet. Much has been said in the press and elsewhere about the protracted armed standoff between Mohawk natives and the authorities in the area of the town of Oka, Quebec. Few people realize that the confrontation had a marine ef fect. Police officials forced the shutdown of the Leger ferry service across the Ottawa River between Hudson and Oka, in an effort to keep rubberneckers and curiosity-seekers away from the area. The ferry service, which had run since 1 9 0 9 , was closed on July 15th for the duration of the difficulties. In an effort to rid its harbour of a major eyesore, the Town of Whitby, On tario, began legal action during June to evict the derelict former carferry PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, which has been lying idle at Whitby ever since the end of the massive North Traverse dredging project in which McNamara Marine had participated. Whitby succeeded during May in securing federal approval for a redesignation of its harbour from an industrial port to a pleasure craft har bour and thus had the authority to take action to evict PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND when her owner, Art Robinson, did not move her. Also of concern has been the fact that electrical transformers aboard the old ferry contain PCBs, and the storage and/or removal of these dangerous materials had attracted the inte rest of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. At last report, there had been no resolution of the situation. One of the attempts to revive passenger service across Lake Ontario between Toronto and Niagara in the years since the 1957 retirement of CAYUGA, invol ved three hydrofoils which operated on the run for one season almost a de cade ago. QUEEN OF TORONTO, PRINCE OF NIAGARA and PRINCESS OF THE LAKE were generally considered to have been unsuccessful on the route, in part due to high fares and inconvenient scheduling, and they drifted off to Florida wa ters when their Lake Ontario service ended. One of the vessels recently was back in the news when, on June 22nd, she capsized in the New River, just west of the Southwest Seventh Avenue bridge at Fort Lauderdale. The CROWN DIVER, which had lost her hydrofoils and was operated in a Bahamas-based dive ser vice, was being towed up the river to a shipyard for overhaul when her bot tom struck the mud of a shoal, and she heeled over onto her port side. Two months earlier, an effort to get the ship up the river had also failed when she grounded at the same spot, but she had not boon damaged in the earlier incident. Although n ews reports did not specifically identify her earlier names, w e believe that CROWN DIVER was the former PRINCESS OF THE LAKE. The reports did indicate that the other two former hydrofoils had also negotia ted the narrow river en route to the same shipyard facility, but did not con firm whether they also are now owned by Crown Cruise Lines. On June 1 9 ,1 9 9 0 , a crewman aboard the Ontario Northland passenger and auto ferry CHI-CHEEMAUN was crushed to death by a hydraulic watertight door. Wil liam Foster, 59, had only joined CHI-CHEEMAUN a few days before the incident which occurred as the ferry was nearing South Baymouth, Manitoulin Island, and he had planned to retire this autumn. As of the time of this report, it had not been announced whether the investigation into this very strange oc currence had yielded any explanation of how the death had come to happen.

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