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Ship of the M o n t h loading systems. - cont'd. 10. "Over the years, the SIMCOE has been the wo r k h o r s e of the fleet. She spent most of her summers n a v i g a t i n g the t reacherous rivers and canals... then whe n a ship was r e q uired for the coast, summer or winter, it was the SIMCOE that was called. This ru g g e d e x istence has taken its toll, and a l t h o u g h she still sits p r o u d l y w ith her p a i n t w o r k gleaming, she like the WELLAND, is d e s t i n e d for r e t i r e m e n t . . . " The writer, Capt F. C. Smith, Imperial port s u p e r i n t e n d e n t at Sarnia, then co m m e n t e d on some notes taken from the chief engin e e r ' s log abstract of the 1930 t r a n s a t l a n t i c d e l i v e r y voyage: "... she sailed from South Shields at 1 5 : 30 Ap ril 16th, 1930, and arri v e d at H a l i f a x 1 8 : 30 hours A pril 30th. St e am in g time, 14 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes. You p e r f e c t i o n i s t s will say that does not tally. However, there is a n o t a t i o n '1 hour and 12 m i n u t e s Sea and Ice Precaution'. Then there are 4 days in w h i c h she had 25 hours ste am in g time, w h i c h w o u l d be for time zone adjustments. "She was out of dryd o c k on April 15th, so they must have had a couple of busy days s w i nging compass, storing, etc., as she sailed two days later. Her draft le avi ng was 1 4 ' 5 1 / 2 " for'd and 1 6 ' 1 6 ' 1 / 2 " aft, and 13'1" for'd and 15'3" aft arriving, w h i c h might be termed good fighting trim, w hich she no doubt ne ed ed c r o ss in g the A t l a n t i c in early Spring. She u sed 1 , 236 ba rre ls of fuel to make the vo yage and a r r i v e d wit h 760 barrels, a good, safe margin. W i l l i a m Sn el gar was chief e n g ineer for the voyage a c r o s s . . . " We will not give all the details here, but Capt. Smith also n oted extracts from the SI MCOE's log for a voyage which, from F e b r u a r y 3rd to the 13th, 1958, took the steamer from H a l i f a x to Sydney, Nova Scotia, to St. John's and Burin, N e w f oundland, and then back to Halifax, c e r t a i n l y not an easy trade in the dead of winter. The Summer, 1965, issue of "Fleet News" somewhat s u r p r i s i n g l y carr i e d a report from I M P ERIAL SIMCOE - the last one that ever w o u l d appear there. It was an accoun t w r i t t e n to cover only one trip, her final voyage from Sarnia down to Montre al, where she w o u l d be turned over to the scrappers. It was pen ned by Ba rry Leach, 3rd mate for the trip. "After a fast fit-out (we wonder if it rivalled the four-hour [!] fit-out the SIMCOE r e c eived before her u n e x p e c t e d l y early a c t i v a t i o n in the spring of 1964 - E d . ), we d e p arted from winter quarters to the lower (Sarnia) dock for a cargo of furnace fuel for Kingston. Once underway, the pro blems that arose were taken in stride and solved with no great difficulty. The en gin eer s were quite jovial after w o r k i n g 12 or 16 hours a day to keep ev er y t h i n g ru nning smoothly. A bilge full of bunker seemed to keep them busy (! - E d . ) in b e t w e e n r e p a i r i n g pumps. "The deck dep art ment didn't go unnoticed; after repeated attempts to put the Gyro (compass) back in action, we fi nally used the old standby, the ma gn et ic compass. W i t h the steering left in the steady hands of the wheelsman, we steamed straight and true for Port Colborne. "On arriving, we were gree t e d by heavy snow, which started eve ryone c o m pl ai ni ng about the weather. (It was on Saturday, April 17, 1965, that the SIMCOE pa sse d down the W e l l a n d Canal - E d . ) After s t o pping for a few minor repairs to the radio and after w inch - another job w h i c h kept the engineers ha ppy - we co n t i n u e d on our way, still by magnetic compass. W hich goes to prove that you can still n a v ig ate without modern aids whe n necessary. "We made K i n g s t o n on Easter Sunday, to be bells. D i s c h a r g e d our cargo and p r e pared the On arriva l at Montreal, we c o ntinued our cof fe rd am s of bunker w hich our engineers had greeted by the sound of church old girl for her ultimate fate. preparation, i n c luding cleaning removed from the b i l g e . . . " W it h the SIMCOE gone from the fleet, the summer of 1965 proved intere s t i n g for IM PER IAL WINDSOR, for in late May she received orders to head out to the east coast. At Sarnia, she loaded for Montreal, C h a r l o t t e t o w n and Halifax.