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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. general state of the economy and the line's major expenditures on the con version of the freighter HARLEM into the overnight passenger steamer MI NNE SOTA (whose actual ownership at this period is a matter of question), the Chicago & Duluth soon found itself in financial difficulties. It was during 1912 that the bondholders took control of the company, and Captain Denis Sullivan, the principal of D. Sullivan & Company, Chicago, was operating the fleet as receiver. On June 16, 1913, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (later to be Commissioner of Baseball) ordered the MINNETONKA, MINNEKAHTA and M INN E SOTA to be sold in an effort to satisfy the claims of the various creditors. It was in the early spring of 1914 that both MINNETONKA and MINNEKAHTA were sold to James Playfair, who transferred them to his Great Lakes Transporta tion Company Ltd., of Midland, Ontario. MINNETONKA was enrolled at Midland under Canadian official number 126659, her dimensions being shown on the register as 324. 0 x 42. 0 x 19 . 5, and her tonnage as 2406 Gross and 1472 Net. James Playfair adhered to a strict code of naming all of his vessels for places in Scotland, where lay his family roots, and all of the names he chose began with the distinctive prefix "Glen". Accordingly, MINNETONKA and MINNEKAHTA were renamed (c) GLENFINNAN and GLENLYON, respectively, while the steamer WAWATAM, which Playfair had acquired at almost the same time, but from the Atlas Steamship Company, of Duluth, was rechristened (b) GLENLIVET. The origin of GLENLYON's name was noted when we featured her as Ship of the Month No. 180 in our issue of February, 1990. GLENFINNAN was named for a town which lies at the upper end of Loch Shiel, in the Highland district of northwest Scotland. Glenfinnan is situated some fifteen miles to the northwest of Fort William, not far inland from the Sound of Arisaig on the Sea of the Hebrides. When she entered service for Playfair, GLENFINNAN was painted in the usual colourful livery which he used for his ships. She had a light grey hull and the spar deck bulwarks were the same colour. The forecastle and cabins were white, and the smokestack was crimson with a broad black smokeband at the top. (Hence, she wore for Playfair the same stack colours that she had sported when she sailed for the Bradley fleet, although there was absolutely no connection between the t w o . ) GLENFINNAN and GLENLYON were placed together on a service between Cleveland and the Canadian Lakehead. Downbound, they usually carried grain for Gode rich or for the Georgian Bay ports of Midland or Port McNicoll. They would unload and then head for Cleveland to load general cargo, which often included large quantities of barbed wire on spools, which was destined for Port Arthur and then shipment by rail to western Canada farms. Steel plates and reinforcing rods were also carried upbound, as well as almost any sort of package freight that could be loaded either at Cleveland or at wharves along the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. One of their usual stops was at the Canadian Soo, a major unloading port for much freight brought up from "down below". Over the years that Playfair operated GLENFINNAN, he had considerable work done on her to make her a more efficient vessel. The first change made was to relocate the mainmast from the doghouse on deck to a position well aft of the stack. Later, the entire bridge structure was replaced with a handsome triple-deck cabin, although it still remained aft of the first hatch. The lowest level was a squarish deckhouse, somewhat similar to the original, but with many portholes instead of windows. A very large texas cabin was placed on the second deck, and it had a broadly curved front with seven large and widely-spaced windows. It is to be assumed that this cabin contained accom modation for the owner and guests, as well as for the master. A new pilot house was placed on the bridge deck, with nine large windows in its rounded front, shaded by a prominent sunvisor. There was no open bridge, and all na vigation was done from inside the spacious new pilothouse.