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9. Ship of the M onth - cont'd. front and a p r o minent sun visor over them. There were bridgewings, to assist in navigation, at the sides of the bridg e deck. On the m o n key's isl an d atop the pilothouse, there was an emergency binnacle, and the area was s urr o u n d e d by an open rail, altho u g h no n a v i g a t i o n was done from there. An open rail ran back down the sides of the spar deck, and there were six large hat ches to pro vi de acc es s to the cargo holds. The vesse l ' s two tall, h eavy and tape red pole mas ts did do uble se rvice as kingp os ts . The for em as t was stepped b e t w e e n the first and se cond ha tches and carr i e d a cargo boom w hich was slung on the aft side of the spar. The m a i n m a s t was pla ce d betw e e n the fourth and fif th hatches, and it ca rried two booms, one slung forward and one aft. A r o u n d the flush q u a r t e r d e c k ran a clo se d steel taf fr ai l to affor d shelt er to the rather large and squar i s h after cabin. Its forw a r d sec ti on con t a i n e d the b o i l e r h o u s e and also the upp er se ction of the coal bunkers. Fuel was loaded through a hatc h set into the boat dec k at the forward end of the bo iler house, but there was no rail of any nat ur e around the front of the boat deck in this area. The cabin was rather b a l d -looking, as there were not v ery man y w i n d o w s in it, and the only o v e rhang of the boat deck was a short sec ti on on w h i c h the l ifeboats sat, and w hich then e x t e n d e d back over the fantail. The stack was tall and heavy, and had al most no rake at all. Ar o u n d the stack were plac ed several v e n t i l a t o r cowls to admit fresh air to the m a c h i n e r y spaces. Whe n the bunkers were full, there also w ould be a pile of coal on the boat deck around the base of the stack. THOMAS J. D R U M M O N D appe ar s to have o p e rated ver y s u c c e s s f u l l y for the ra ilr oad's s h i pping su bs idiary. She made h i s t o r y in 1915, the sec on d year of World War One, whe n she carr i e d a cargo of steel bill e t s from Sault Ste. Marie across the A t l a n t i c to Fra nc e to as sist in the war effort. Once the cargo was delivered to its desti na ti on , the steam er r e t u r n e d to her home waters of the Great Lakes. In 1917, the Al g o m a Ce ntral tr aded THOMAS J. D R U M M O N D to James P layfair's Great Lakes T r a n s p o r t a t i o n C o m p a n y Ltd., of Midland, Ontario, in re t u r n for the small u p p e r - l a k e bulk car ri er W I L L I A M S. MAC K (18), (b) H OME SMI TH (36), (c) A L G O R A I L (I), w h i c h had been built back in 1901 for the Jen ki ns interests, and w h i c h would, after the trade, spend the rest of her life in Algoma Cen tral service. The 366-f oo t A L G O R A I L was s c r a p p e d at Toro n t o in 1963. Almo st i m m e d i a t e l y after the D R U M M O N D ma de the tran sf er to the Play fa ir fleet, and most p r o b a b l y bef or e she even could be pain t e d up in the t raditional and d i s t i n c t i v e Pl ayfair livery, the D R U M M O N D was r e q u i s i t i o n e d for wart i m e service on salt water. Her ow n e r s h i p was transf e r r e d to the M i n i s t e r of R a i lways and Canals, Ottawa. She was sent to salt wat er but, in order to enable her bette r to w i t h s t a n d N o r t h A t l a n t i c w e a t h e r condi ti on s, the sides of her after cabin were plated in flush w ith the hull. Do ors to what f o r merly had been the out si de p a s s a g e w a y aro un d the cabin wer e cut into bu l k h e a d s across its fo rward ends, just abaft the front of the b oilerhouse. A rais ed gun pla c e m e n t was set right aft on the boat deck. F ortunately, THOMAS J. D R U M M O N D was able to w i t h s t a n d both the w e a t h e r and the efforts of the ene my during her stay on salt water, and she r e m ained off-l akes for a per io d of time after the c e ssation of the hosti li ti es . D uring the e arly 1920s, she was r e t urned to the Great Lakes for o p e r a t i o n in the grain trade by he C a n a d i a n G o v e r n m e n t M e r chant Marine. Her hull was pain t e d all blac k at this stage. Her fo rward cabins were white, except for the p i l o t h o u s e sunvisor, w h i c h was p a i n t e d a dark colour. The entir e after de ckh ouse was black, wh ile the s m okestack was a ver y dark buff wit h a bro ad bla ck s m okeban d at the top.