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N at i r o n c o - cont'd. 4. C o n c e r n i n g N A T I R O N C O ' s sink in g in the Detr oi t River, "The Eve ni ng Record" of Windsor, June 19, 1917, reported: "Badly dama g e d by a c o llision wit h the freighter NATIR ON CO , w h i c h was sunk in the De troit Riv er chann el on the C a nadian side, off Sandwich, at mi dnight Monday, the st eamer E A S T E R N STATES, bound from Detroit to Clev el an d, will be in dryd o c k u n d e r g o i n g rep ai rs for the next three weeks. "The freighter was bound for Detroit wi th a cargo of iron ore and, a c c ording to Capt. Lee C. DeNike of the EAST E R N STATES, was c a r r y i n g poor lights. The p as s e n g e r ship struck the fr eighter on the port side and a little back of the bow, cutt i n g a deep hole. The f r e ighter turned on her side and sank in a few minutes. Only part of the fr eighter remai ns above water. "At the crash, the fr e i g h t e r ' s crew put off in ya wls and landed on the D e troit side of the river. The m a j o r i t y of the D. & C. ste am er 's p assengers were as leep whe n the crash came. There was no panic, a c c o r d i n g to me mbers of the crew. The EAST E R N ST ATES put back to Detroit, where the passe n g e r s and cargo were transf e r r e d to the st eamer DETR O I T II (sic - must have been CITY OF DE TROIT III - E d . ) and the trip to C l e v e l a n d continued. "An i n v e s t i g a t i o n to fix r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for the ac cident has been started. C a n a d i a n and A m e r i c a n exp er ts will exam in e the s u b m e r g e d hull of the N A T IRONCO and decide what d i s p o s i t i o n will be made of it to clear the channel and not obs truct n a v i g a t i o n . " Reg a r d i n g the later owners of NATIR ON CO , we have hea rd from me mbers Wm. A. Schell and John H. Wil te rd in g, Jr., the latter ref e r r i n g us to the "Register of Merchant Ships C o m p l e t e d in 1892" by A. J. Starke, of Austr al ia . Some of the details are co nf licting, but we have tried to pick a trail thr ou gh them. NA T I R O N C O ' s sale to Fr ance seems to coin ci de wi th the p u rchases of the Frenc h G o v e r n m e n t ' s L i n d e b o o m Miss i o n of July, 1917, w hich p u r c h a s e d a number of ships (in cl ud in g the cana ll er DORIC) in the U . S. and Canada. Theo. Colombier, Bordeaux, must have been a broker, beca us e no re gisters show him as owner of the ship. She a p p a r e n t l y was owned by the Fre nc h G o v e r n m e n t in 1918, and the 1919 Lloyd's shows NA T I R O N C O un der the same ownership. She was sold in 1920 to priva te French owners, Socie te M a r i t i m e et Co m m e r c i a l e de France, Paris, and r e g i s t e r e d at Rouen. She was su rveyed at Mar s e i l l e in May 1920 for c l a s s i f i c a t i o n by Bur ea u Veritas. The 1920 Llo yd 's shows her under the name SCORPION, but that is its only "official" appearance, and it does not appear in 1921 as an "ex name". (Strangely, it r e a ppears as an "ex" in the 1923 and 1927 issues of Bur ea u Ve ritas Register. BV also shows some strange and u n s u p p o r t a b l e engine details, so their data is " q u e s t i o n a b l e " . ) SAN CARLO seems to have been the name officially r e g i s t e r e d at the time of the pri vate French acqu is it io n. The 1922 Lloyd's shows owner as Gius ep pe Guidi fu Giov., Sanremo, Italy, r e g i s t e r e d at Porto M a u r i z i o . In 1924, owner was Secondo V i g evano fu Cesare, of Genoa, and in 1925 it was Del Gatto & Loffredo, of Torre del Greco. SAN CARLO is listed in the 1929 Ll oyd's but was deleted by 1930. Llo yd 's Confidential Index shows a 1929 sale to Raff aele Corbo di Vincenzo, of Ci vitavecchia, Italy, and this may have been a shipbreaker. So far, no det ai ls of her demis e are known, but it seems p o s sible that she was broken up at C i v i t a v e c c h i a about 1929, or perha ps a year or two ea rlier (register entri es not alway s havi ng been timely). * * * * * For Sale by Silent A u c t i o n : a large c o l l e c t i o n of photos, postcards, books, etc. All proce ed s to be c o n t r i b u t e d to the Ca nadian Can ce r Soci et y in mem or y of the late Toro nt o Mar in e Hist o r i c a l Soci e t y member, Capt. Ron Tackaberry. There will be a series of auctions. To receive all lists of items to be sold, send $ 2 . 00 to Ronald F. Beaupre, 526 Thede Drive, Port Elgin, Ontario N0H 2C4. Ron will advise i n t e r e s t e d and s ubscribing par ti es of all n e cessary details. * * * * *