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3. Ma r i n e News - cont'd. tugs at 9 : 30 a. m. the fol l o w i n g day, and da mage was not severe, although freight and p a s senger train service over the bridge was del ay ed for ten hours. The bridge handl es m a i n l i n e traffic for both Conr a i l and Amtrak. I n terestingly, the writer of the "Toledo Blade" Ap ril 3rd report of the incident got the facts a little skewed and r e p orted that M O N T R E A L A I S had been b ound from Toled o to Russia with her grain cargo! What we believe to be the first maj or gro u n d i n g of the 1993 lake sea so n took place at 1 1 : 52 p . m. on Monday, April 12th, whe n the d o w n b o u n d M E L I S S A D E S GAGNES, (a) ONTAD OC (II)(90), bou nd from W i n d s o r to Ne wfoundland, struck bot t o m near Light 54, two mil es above the E i s e n h o w e r Lock in the Seaway. The reason for the gr o u n d i n g was not i m m e d i a t e l y known. The St. La wrence Sea wa y D e v e l o p m e n t C o r p o r a t i o n tug R O B I N S O N BAY was d i s p a t c h e d to the scene, and she pul led on the DE SGAGNES, but to no avail. On We dn esday, the 14th, the M c A l l i s t e r tugs SALVAGE M O N A R C H and H E L E N M. M c A L L I S T E R arri v e d from M o n t real wit h the w r e c k e r P . S. BA RGE NO. 1, and 2 , 400 of the 6 , 400 tons of grain aboard the DES G A G N E S were l i g htered out. At 1 : 28 p. m. on the 15th, wit h all three tugs pushing, the ship was fl oated free and her cargo s u b s e q u e n t l y was r e l o a d e d from the lighter. E x a m i n a t i o n of the DESGAGNES' hull showed no s i g nif icant damage, and she was allo w e d to p r o c e e d on her way. On A pril 11, the N o r w e g i a n tanker TU RID K N U T S E N was u p b o u n d in the Se a w a y on her first ever lake trip, wit h a load of cau st ic soda for Co rnwall and S a r nia. On April 15, she was fet ed as the first salty of the year at Sarnia, but on the fol l o w i n g day things turned u gly w hen a hose burst whilst the tanker was loading toluene at the Sunoc o dock and 150 gallons of the h az a r d o u s chemical es caped into the St. Cl air River. E m e r g e n c y re sponse teams went to w o r k to pr otect shore li ne areas, and the d r i n k i n g w a t e r s u p plies of several commun i t i e s were threa t e n e d but not a c t u a l l y affected. Federal au t h o r i t i e s laid two charg es aga in st the ship und er the Canada S h i pping Act in c o n s e quence of the spill. On A pril 20, Capt. Gor do n Stogdale, f o r m e r l y of C . C . G . S. GRIFFON, was s e n tenced to a year in prison on three charg es of d a n gerous o p e r a t i o n of a v e s sel in the M a r c h 19, 1991, sink in g of the fish tu g C A P T A I N K. The sen te nc e is being appealed, and Sto gd al e has been r e l e a s e d from c u s t o d y in the interim. It has been a n n o u n c e d that the U . S. Coast Guard plans to ret ir e the big i c e breaker M A C K I N A W once she has c o m pleted her ice dutie s in the sp ring of 1994 at w h i c h time she will be fif ty ye ars old. The a n n o u n c e m e n t has g e n e r a t e d m u c h a dv erse reaction, p a r t i c u l a r l y in Chebo yg an , Mich ig an , whe re M A C K I N A W is stationed, and muc h has bee n made of the fact that ot her Coast G u a r d v e s sels c u r r e n t l y b ased in the lakes cannot pro vi de the same i c e b r e a k i n g c a p a b i l iti es as does MA CKINAW. The r etirement is a result of fiscal restraint. Plans by the TNR Corp. to b egin c ross-lake pas s e n g e r servi ce betw e e n To ronto and St. C a t h a r i n e s have e n c o u n t e r e d maj or problems. The co mpany had c o n tracted wit h N o r w e g i a n s h i pyard K v a e r n e r F j e l l s t r a n d for three h i g h - s p e e d catam a r a n s for the service, but TNR was unable to co mplete fin a n c i n g in time and all of the ships have now bee n sold to other op erators, the last of them going to a Danish buyer in March. TNR was one of several op erators i n t e n d i n g to b e g i n Lake Onta r i o cro s s i n g s last summer, but none of them ever got started in regular service. In the April issue, we n oted the op ening of the W e l l a n d Ship Canal for the 1993 season on M a r c h 30th, the first pa ssage bei ng made by the u p b o u n d CAPT. H E N R Y JACKMAN. By press time, however, we did not have i n f o r m a t i o n c o n c e r n ing the Seaway opening. The i c e b r e a k e r C . C . G . S. PI ERRE R A D I S S O N was w o r k i n g in the U . S. sec tion on M a r c h 28th, but as it turned out, the of ficial o p e n ing was rather remar ka bl e, in that the same ship made b oth the first c o m m e r cial u p b o u n d and d o w n b o u n d trips. Cana da S t e a m s h i p Lines' JEA N P A R I S I E N was u p b o u n d at St. Lambert at 1 0 : 30 a. m. on M a r c h 30th, wit h a cargo of iron ore for Hamilton, but she had har d going beca us e of h eavy ice condi t i o n s and it was not until April 1st that she re ached the Snell Loc k at Massena. The