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13. Ship of the M onth - cont'd. cargo of crude oil, she mi s s e d the turn at the entrance to Toronto's Western Gap, and she ran aground off the m o u t h of E t obicoke Creek, c o n s i d e r a b l y to the west of the harbour entrance. A fter part of her cargo was lightered off by the Transit Tankers & T e rminals tanker TRANSLAKE, C E D A R B R A N C H finally was p ul le d free of the shore by the Russ e l l C o n s t r u c t i o n C o m p a n y Ltd. steam tug R . C. CO. TUG NO. 1 (which survives to this day as McKeil Marine's ARGUE MARTIN, now one year short of her centenary). Afte r all the effort and expend i t u r e that had been put into the r e building of CED ARBRANCH, her owner did not get to e njoy her services for long. As a consequ enc e of the demand for tonnage crea t e d by World War Two, wit h a p a r ticular need for tankers capable of c a r r y i n g fuel, C E D A R B R A N C H was r e q u i s i tioned by the C a n a d i a n government. To make matt e r s worse, she was only one of four Branch Lines tankers taken by the authorities! In a d d ition to C E D A R BRANCH, the fleet lost its O A K B R A N C H (I), P I N E B R A N C H and W I L L O W B R A N C H (I), and was left wi th only one major tanker, that b eing the aged M A P L E B R A N C H (I) w hic h was so de crepit that she could n ever have been consi d e r e d for salt w a ter service. As it turned out, only one of the r e q u i s i t i o n e d tankers, P I N E BRANCH, w ould return to the fleet after the war. All four of the r e q u i s i t i o n e d tankers p r o c e e d e d out to the east coast of C a nada, C E D A R B R A N C H m a k i n g the trip in N o v e m b e r of 1941. The four ships then lay at anchor in the harbour at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and we have no r e cord of any active use being made of them whilst they were there. Their idlene ss must surely have galled the m a n a g e m e n t of Branch Lines, w hich could have made good use of the tankers. CE D A R B R A N C H fi na ll y was transf e r r e d to the B r i t i s h M i n i s t r y of War Transport in 1944, and she cr ossed the Atlantic. U n d e r the name (f) EMPIRE NEWT, the steamer was pl ace d in service b e t w e e n B r i t i s h and c o n t i nental ports under the m a na ge me nt of the famous old firm of F. T. Everard & Sons Ltd., London. The service was shortlived, however, and by N o v ember of 1946, her u s e f u l ness had come to an end, and it was a n n o u n c e d that she had been sold for sc rap pin g at I n v e r k e i t h i n g , Scotland. She was duly broken up there in 1947. If it had be en known that she was available, Branch Lines might have been ha ppy to take back the former CEDARBRANCH, c o n s i d e r i n g what little use the fleet had been able to make of this tanker after her 1 9 39-1940 conversion. But the co mp a n y had a c q uired several war surplus m o t o r t a n k e r s , and would soon build ne w tonnage, so perhaps there was no room in the fleet for this ha nds ome steame r from an other era. Before closing, we should comment on the ev entual disposition of the re ma in in g five sis tership C . S . L. "Wolvin" canallers. As a wartime necessity, C H A P L E A U was r e a c t i v a t e d b r i e f l y as a barge by Leaf Barges D i v ision of Branch Lines in 1943, but after the war, she was again laid up and she was sc rap ped in 1955. The r e m aining four also went to Leaf Barges Division, but they were r e f u r b i s h e d in 1942-1943 as s t e amers for lake and river service. They got ne w fo rwa rd cabins, much like C E D A R BRANCH, but they r e m ained dry bulk carriers. For their new service, C A M R O S E was re named PALMLEAF, CHANDLER becam e ASPENLEAF, C H A T S W O R T H was re named BAYL E A F and CANM O R E was r e c h r i s t ened ASHLEAF. PALML EAF and A S P E N L E A F were sold in 1949 to the H i n d m a n interests, and were r ena med BL ANC HE H I N D M A N (I) and H E L E N H I N D M A N (I). Sold again in 1952, they ran as PAR KD AL E (I) and G R O V E D A L E (I) for Reoch and then for Upper Lakes & St. Lawren ce T r a n s p o r t a t i o n Company, and they were scrapped together at Port Weller in 1959. BAYLEAF and A S H L E A F lasted even longer. They were sold in 1951 and fin is hed out their days as C a p t a i n F r a n k M a n z z u t t i ' s cr aneships M A N C O X and MANZZUTTI. They were s c r apped to gether at H a m i l t o n in 1971. A u g us tu s Wo lvi n could never have canallers w o u l d be! i m a gined how successful his little flock of * * * * *