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Winona dock, - c o n t 'd . and also in the small boats on the water in the foreground. 12. The fact that WI NONA was such a popular steamer along the Sy de nh am River may, perhaps, be r es po ns ib le for the i mp re ss io n that she ran out of W a l l a c e burg for mu c h longer than she a c t ual ly did. In fact, she only served W a l laceburg for two full seasons, those of 1904 and 1905. The "News" of March 29, 1906, ran an item c o n c e r n i n g a rumour that the owner of WI NO NA had sold her, but Capt. Ellison was qu ot ed as den yi ng the story. Then, on April 26, 1906, the same n e w s pa pe r announced that WIN ON A had been sold for the sum of $ 9 , 300 to "Playfair & Preston of M i ll in g & Lumber Co., of Midland", who would use her in the freight and pa ss eng er trade. WINONA had spent the winter of 1905-1906 laid up at Wallaceburg, and before leaving for the north under her own power, she was co mpl ete ly rep ai nt ed at the W a l laceburg Ship ya rd by James Taylor and Son. The "Playfair" m e n t i o n e d as one of the new owners was James Playfair, of Midland, Ontario, whose ac ti v i t i es often have been re co rd ed in the pages of "Scanner". One of Ca nada's most famous ship pin g entrepreneurs, Play fai r got his c o mm er ci al start in the lumber busin ess at C o l l in gw oo d and then at M i d land. H e en te r e d the lake ship pi ng trade in 1896 and re ma ine d very act ive in the ope r a t i o n of lake vessels until his de ath in 1937. At one stage, a major dry goods retail store near the Mid la nd waterfront was named Pl ay fa ir & Preston, and we assume that this is the source of the refere nce in the W a l laceburg newspaper. James Playfair, in 1906, was o p er at ing the Midl and Na vi g a t i o n Comp any Ltd., which was a small fleet of ca n a l -s iz ed and upper lakes carriers, which ev en t u a l l y grew into a very large shipp ing "empire". Why would Playfair, then, have pu r c h a s e d a small passe nge r ship? We suspect that he pl a n n e d to operate her as a pa ssenger carrier and supply ship, ope ra ti ng to the towns along the shore of G e o r g i a n Bay in co n j u n c t i o n with the Mid lan d dry goods business. The fact that W I N O N A a c t u a l l y was sold in 1906 (and not as late as 1910 as sometimes has been suggested), is confir med by T. M . H . S. member George Ayoub, who has r e s e a rc h e d her o f f ic ia l d o c u m e n t a t i o n in the Ca na dia n govern men t re gi st ry records. There he found evidence of a bill of sale dated May 10, 1906, from The N a v i g a t i o n C o m p a n y of Port Stanley to James Playfair, of M i d land. The port of regi st ry of WI N O N A then was changed from Port S t an le y to Midland. There then followed cl os e l y 1906, t r a n s fe rr in g o w ne rs hi p White, also of Midland. another bill of sale, this dated July 23rd, of WI NO NA from James Playf air to Isabe lla D. It will be recalled that, in our origi nal feature, we commented up o n the fact that the Dom in io n List showed one Isabe lla D. White as owner of WINONA from 1907 at least until 1918, something we att ri bu te d to b o o k - k e e p i n g er rors in bu re au cr at ic circles. We wo nd er ed if there had been con fu si on b e tween W I N O N A and the steam tug WINNANNA, built in 1906-1907 at Mi d l a n d and owned by Capt. W i l l i a m White. At the time, we were una wa re of the fact that James Playfair ever had any interest in WINONA. Now that we have kn owledge of the in vol vem ent of James Playfair with WINONA, however, we believe that we c a n explain the mystery. One of James Playfa ir' s longtime a s so ci at es was D. L. White, Jr., of Midland, with whom Playfair entere d into a pa rt ne r s h i p in 1888 for the purpose of pu rs uin g the lumber trade in Midland. White r e m ai ned an as so cia te of James Playfair into his shipping years, and was a dir ec to r of the Midland N a v i g a t i o n C o mp an y Ltd. when it was formed by Playfair in 1901. It wo ul d appear that Isabella D. White was the wife of D. L. White, Jr., and it is likely that WI N O N A was r eg is ter ed in her name for "business purposes". Thus, there was no error in the 1907 list ing of Isabe lla White as owner of WINONA, but there was a p a p e r w o r k pro bl em with the failure to change the