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Marine News - cont'd. 4. A press report appearing on April 30th quoted CSL Inc. chairman Tony C h e s terman as saying that a merger of the deep-sea self-u nl oad er op erations of Canada St eamship Lines and Upper Lakes Shipping is imminent. After the resignat ion last December of former CSL president J. Fred Pitre, who opposed any move of the company's in te rnational operations from Montreal, they were, indeed, moved to the Unit ed States during April in order to facilitate the proposed merger, for which negot ia tio ns have been in progress for some six months. As no agreement has yet been concluded, details of the proposals were not released, and it will be inte res tin g to see what may develop in this respect over the next few months. The U . S . S. Great Lakes Fleet Inc. 1 ,000-foot self-u nl oa de r EDWIN H. GOTT suffered an e m ba rra ss ing accident on April 3rd, as she was leaving her winter berth at Duluth, en route to load her first cargo of the season at Two Harbors, Minnesota. As the GOTT was backing away from her berth, she somehow ma na ged to lose one of her twin rudders, which simply dropped off and sank to the harbour floor. The vessel's owners were intending to search for the rudder in an effort to recover it and clear any possible naviga tio n obstruction. This is not the first time that the GOTT has lost a rudder; on her maiden voyage from Mil wau ke e to Two Harbors in 1979, the GOTT dropped a rudder and was out of service for two months until a new one could be fitted. One of the lengthiest shipping delays on the St. Mary's River in recent mem ory occurred during the period from early morning on April 21 until late on the 23rd, when cold water and ice, in conjunc ti on with u n se as on ab ly warm weather, pro duced such dense fog that shipping on the river was suspended. By mid -m o r n i n g on Wednesday, April 23rd, 43 ships were anchored in the river including MIT ER A VASSIUKA, HALIFAX, ST. CLAIR, LEMOYNE, EDGAR B. SPEER, MONTREALAIS, PAUL R. TREGURTHA, AME RIC AN MARINER, CHARLES E. WILSON, SIMCOE, WALTER J. McC ARTHY JR., CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN, RESERVE, J. L. MAUTHE, RALPH MISENER, COL UMBIA STAR, BEECHGLEN, FEDERAL RHINE, CA NA DI AN LEADER, LOUIS R. DESMARAIS and EDWARD L. RYERSON, all of which were upbound. At anchor, d o w n bound, were EDWIN H. GOTT, PHILIP R. CLARKE, ALPENA, W IL FR ED SYKES, JEAN P A RISIEN, AGAWA CANYON, BUCKEYE, PATERSON, JOSEPH L. BLOCK, ROGER BLOUGH, STEWART J. CORT, TADOUSSAC, PRESQUE ISLE, KAYE E. BARKER, WINDOC, GEORGE A. STINSON, MESABI MINER, KINSM AN INDEPENDENT, ALMA, OGLEB AY NORTON and two lat e-reporting ships that the press reports did not identify. It is suggested that such a long delay in vessel traffic had not been wi t n e s s e d on the St. Mary's River since the spring of 1972. Last issue, we menti one d briefly the diff ic ult ie s which beset the restaurant (and former tug) QUEEN CITY at Windsor during March. We now have more detail to report. The QUEEN CITY's problem began on Thursday, March 19th, about half an hour before she was to open for dining at 5: 00 p. m. Her hull apparen tly holed by ice, QUEEN CITY began to take on water, and it was only the fact that her mooring cables held that kept the vessel on the surface, albeit with a severe list to starboard, away from her Dieppe Gardens wharf. The tug's owner, Hank Van Aspert, called in three cranes which, with cables around QUEEN CITY's hull, were able to support the tug until pumps could be activated. The vessel finally was pumped out the following morning. Van Aspert alleg edl y had QUEEN CITY up for sale, but was reported as saying that he hoped to reopen the restaurant if damage to her galley area in the hold and to the din in gr oo m on the main deck were not det er mi ne d too severe. QUEEN CITY is of interest to Lake Ontario marine historians in that, for many years before heading to Windsor, she served as Toronto Harbour base for the Waterm an' s Services (Scott) Ltd. pilot tugs. Before that, she had run as M AC ASS A (II) for the Ham il to n Harbour Commission, at one time doing a ferry service betwee n downtown Ha mil to n and Burlin gt on Beach. Originally, she was the government tug JALOBERT, built in 1911 at Kingston, which was for many years a familiar sight around the Welland Canal until replaced in 1954 by the present canal tug WELLAND.