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13. Ship of the M onth - cont'd. In the spring of 1967, S T O N E F A X was sold bac k to the A l g o n q u i n Corpo ra ti on , and on April 17th, she went back into service. In 1968, she was broug ht into Canad i a n r e g i s t r y (with the same Of ficial Num be r as before) and her owner became the Hall C o r p o r a t i o n of Canada. Her port of r e g i s t r y was Mo ntreal, and the C a n a d i a n List of S h i pping r e c orded her tonnage as 4509 Gross and 2989 Net. There came a furth er change in 1969, whe n the own in g comp a n y was re o r g a n i z e d as the Hall C o r p o r a t i o n (Shipping) 1969 Ltd., Montreal. D ur ing these last few ye ars of her life, S T O N E F A X was i n v olved in several min or strandings, but each time she was r e floated wi thout s ignificant damage. As examples, she went agr ou nd in the St. Clair River off the nor th end of Walpole Island on May 18, 1970, and on Dece mb er 4th of the same year, she was ashore for a day in Lake St. Clair. Old age and years of e x t r e m e l y hard use, however, fi nally caught up wit h S T O NEFAX and, w h e n she laid up at H a m i l t o n for the win t e r of 1970-1971, it was the end of her career. On May 15, 1971, ST ONEFAX was sold to Uni te d Metals Ltd. - S trathearne Ter m i n a l s (Hamilton) Ltd., and on May 20th, she was resold to Steel Factors Ltd., Montreal. She then was re sold to Sp anish Sh ipbreakers, for d i s m a n t l i n g in Europe. The v e nerable S T O N E F A X did not linger long be fore taking her d e parture from the lakes, and on May 28, 1971, she was towed out of H a m i l t o n harb ou r by the M c A l l i s t e r tugs SALVAG E M O N A R C H and DAN IE L McALL IS TE R. She made a r e l a t i v e l y u n e v e n t f u l passage down Lake On tario and the St. La wrence canals, and on a r rival at Quebec City on May 31st, she clea r e d almost i m m e d i a t e l y behind the Polish ocean tug JANTAR, in tandem tow wit h the former Nor la ke S t eamships Ltd. steamer A L E X A N D E R LESLIE. The tow cro ss ed the A t l a n t i c in safety, and ar rived at Santander, Spain, on June 19, 1971, after w hich the brea ke rs made short work of the two aged lake vessels. Thus ended the career of one of the Great Lakes' most i n t e r e s t i n g self -u nloaders. She had enjo ye d a wide vari e t y of trades, and w hen first co n v e r t e d to a s e l f - u n l o a d i n g sandsucker, had the d i s t i n c t i o n of bei ng the first ship in the world ever to be fitted wit h eq uipment capable of sorti ng gr avel by size on board, so that it could be u n l o a d e d into separate piles wi thout the need for addit i o n a l sorting ashore. She had served a numbe r of di ff erent fleets, and survived two major ac ci dental sinkings, ei ther of whi ch might easily have ended her life. But she end ur ed all of this, and saw 67 years of operation, a tribute to her West Bay Ci ty builders and the owners who s u b s e q u e n t l y had the fores ig ht to convert her to serve s p ecialty trades. * * * Ed. N o t e : Our thanks to Ron Be aupre for fin di ng some of the i n f o r m a t i o n used in pre p a r i n g this feature, and to T. M . H . S. secretary, Joh n H. Bascom, for w o r k i n g up the basic s of the story while your Editor was taking some mental re spite in the sunny Caribbean. Rea ders seeking to know more about the salvage explo it s of Capt. John Roen w ou ld do well to read Roen S t eamship Company, The Way It Was, 1 9 0 9 - 1 9 7 6 , pu blished p r i v a t e l y in 1983 by John H. Purves. The autho r wor ke d for the Roen o r g a n i z a t i o n from 1928 until its d i s s o l u t i o n in 1976. The few typos, etc., whi ch appear in the text can easi ly be forg iv en in vie w of the wea lt h of histo r i c a l m a t erial c o ntained in its 119 pages. As ever, of course, those inter e s t e d in the Hall C o r p o r a t i o n fleet hist o r y must read The Wishbo ne F l e e t , p u blished pri v a t e l y in 1972 by T. M . H . S. me mber Daniel C. McCormi ck , of Massena, New York. Regrettably, the Hall fleet s u r vived only a decade and a half after the ap pe arance of Dan's most important volume, and the demise of the fleet could sca rc el y have been fore se en back in those palmy years of prosperity. As always, we should be glad to hear from any mem be rs who have ad di tional i nformation on the oper at io ns of SI NALOA - WILL I A M F. R A P P R I C H - STONEFAX. * * * * *