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Marine News - cont'd. 4. In January, we re ported that the old Litton drydock at Erie, Pennsylvania, w oul d be reo pe ned by a firm known as the J o n athan Corp. In fact, the Erie We st er n P e n n s yl vania Port A u t h o r i t y had enquiries both from Jonathan and from the Great Lakes Towing Co mpany to operate the old Litton shipyard, but the A u t h o r i t y de cided to lease to Jonathan, a company based in Norfolk, Virginia. Its affiliate, Erie Marine Enterprises, began to reopen the f a c i lities and more workers were expected at the yard during winter. The Interlake Ste am ship Comp a n y laid up at the shipyard two of its 1, 000footers, JAMES R. BARKER and PAUL R. T R E G U R T H A (not MESABI MINER as earlier reported), but it seems u n l i k e l y that Erie Marine will be able to do any major marine wo rk until the yard has been refurbished completely. The package fr eighter WOODLAND, (a) FRENCH RIVER (81), (b) JE N S E N STAR (86), wh ich lay idle at Mo ntreal during 1990, has been reported sold by Wo odl and s Marine Inc., Thunder Bay, to U . S. interests for o p eration under a flag of convenience. It was expected that she would sail from Montreal during the week of January 21st, bound for Florida. Also sold r e c en tly is the small coaster HANC O C K TRADER, owned by A. C. Stark Ltd., of Oshawa. Now owned by Marsh Harbour Sh ipping Ltd., of Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, Bahamas, and r e gistered in Honduras, she cleared Sorel on Dec em ber 6, 1990, under the new name ARAWAK SUN II. In the Ja nu a r y issue, we men t i o n e d the "temporary" susp ension of the Lake M i c hi ga n car fe rry service operated by the M i c h i g a n - W i s c o n s i n T r a n s p o r t a t i o n Company. The firm had al leged that the No vember 16 lay-up at Lud i n g t o n of BADGER was due to shallow water problems at Kewaunee, together wit h the fact that the ferry dock at the propo s e d "new" west e r n terminus at Man it ow oc was not yet ready. The company's ex p l a n a t i o n of the situation pr odu ced a storm of outrage from BADGER crewmembers and Kewaunee officials, all of wh o m de nied in the press that there were any g r o unding problems at that port. It remains to be seen wh ether service is resumed come spring... Co nt ra ry to a report in our last issue, LEWIS WILSON FOY and SPARROWS POINT were not re nam ed on December 20. However, on that date occurred the formal transfer of own ership from B e thlehem Steel to Co lumbia T r a n s p o r t a t i o n (as per a letter of intent signed by Columbia last July). The ships were re qui red to lie empty at an Ohio port for three days prior to the transfer, so the FOY was docked at Lorain and SPARROWS POINT at Ashtabula. Both are laid up at Toledo, but any renames would not likely be made before spring. It us ua l l y is early spring before ic e b r e a k i n g is n e c e s s a r y in the Sydenham River to pre vent flooding, but such action was required in early Ja nuary due to an e x tr emely heavy runoff. The Sandrin B r o s . tug GLENADA, along with the smaller M A R V I N P., of La mbton Marine, were w o r k i n g to break ice on the river and flush it downstream, and finished oper ations on Janu a r y 3rd. GL EN AD A is on retainer to the local conservation authority and mu ni ci pa li ti es , but is based at Sarnia. Despite reports to the contrary, the east coast s a l t - c a r r y i n g barge CAPT. EDWARD V. SMITH (the former lake s e l f -unloader ADAM E. CORNELIUS [III]) contin ues to be towed by the tug IRVING MIAMI. The barge still has her old forward cabins and is nav i g a t e d from the pilothouse, altho u g h her stern has been cut down and is notc h e d for pushing by a tug. The presid ent of the Ryba Marine C o n s t r u c t i o n Company, of Cheboygan, Michigan, has stated that the firm will i nvestigate the po s s i b i l i t y of s a l vaging its tug BA RBARA LYN. The tug sank on October 1, 1990, in Lake Huron off the tip of the M i c h i g a n Thumb, with the loss of her master, and p r e se nt ly is lying in some 200 feet of water. We do not have a date, but it would seem that SCOTT MISE N E R arrived safely at Alang, India, in August. A Lloyd's report of her leaving Singapore on Septemb er 29 for the U . S . S . R. likely referred to tug LEOPARD going home. * * * * *