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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 6. "The units are completely steel encased and insulated against heat loss with refractory and insulation. Preheated air from the air heater flows down through the trunk at the rear of the furnace, occupied by the 4-inch downcomer pipes, and enters the space below the grates from the rear, thus leav ing the firing fronts clear and accessible. Motor-driven forced and induced draft Clarage fans will be used. "The breeching and uptake is of welded Cor-Ten steel construction. The inner and outer stack are also of welded Cor-Ten steel, the outer stack being of streamline section. Whistle pipes are run between the inner and outer stacks. " We should note that there were two Leslie-Typhon steam whistles, one electrically operated and one manual. Back in 1925, the Wilson Transit Company put into commission the steamer WILLIAM C. ATWATER (36), (b) E. J. KULAS (II)(53), (c) BEN MOREELL (I)(55), (d) THOMAS E. MILLSOP (II)(75), (e) E. J. NEWBERRY (82), (f) CEDARGLEN. The reason we mention her here is because she was the first lake steamer to be built with one-piece hatchcovers. This feature, which was the invention of Captain Joseph S. Wood, of the Wilson Transit Company, was a major improve ment over the old-style telescoping hatchcovers because the working of the new design of cover was much less labour-intensive, and did not require the use of protective tarpaulins. Aboard the ATWATER, the one-piece covers were lifted off or put in place by means of a hatch crane (more familiarly called an "iron deckhand" by lake sailors) which straddled the hatches and travel led on rails that ran down either side of the deck. For its four new steam ers of 1937-1938, thePittsburgh Steamship Company purchased the rights to the one-piece hatchcovers from Captain Wood. The WILLIAM A. IRVIN and GOVERNOR MILLER were built with 18 hatches giving access to the three cargo holds. Of these hatches, 16 which measured 38 feet by 11 feet, were equipped with one-piece covers. The remaining two hatches, Numbers 1 and 2, were slightly smaller, being 38 feet by 10 feet, and these had traditional telescoping hatches. The reason for this apparent aberra tion was that each steamer had a deckhouse abaft the first hatch, and the hatch crane was unable to access the area adjacent to the "doghouse". All of the hatches on the JOHN HULST and RALPH H. WATSON were of the one-piece type, because neither of those ships had a deckhouse to interfere with the movements of the iron deckhand. Once the design of the ships was finalized, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company was ready to proceed with their construction, and the contracts were let in March of 1937. Two vessels were to be built by the American Ship Building Company at its yard at Lorain, Ohio, and two were to be constructed by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at River Rouge, Michigan. The vessels were all very similar in design, except that the two boats to be built at Lorain were to be fitted with a different forward cabin arrangement to accommodate guests of the owners. The two ships being built at Lorain were assigned Hull Numbers 810 and 811 but, strangely, they were built in reverse order! Hull 811 was the WILLIAM A. IRVIN, and her keel was laid on June 21, 1937. She was launched on Wed nesday, November 10th and, like the others, she was delivered to the owners in May of 1938. AmShip Hull 810 was the ship that was commissioned as GOVERNOR MILLER, but at least one press report before her launch indicated that she was to be named NATHAN L. MILLER. The keel for the MILLER was laid on July 6, 1937, and she was launched on Thursday, December 2nd. H ull 285 of the Great Lakes Engineering Works was RALPH H. WATSON, and she was launched on Saturday, November 20, 1937. Her sponsor at the christening ceremony was Miss Margaret H. Merrill. Great Lakes Engineering Hull 286, JOHN HULST, was launched in December of 1937, but we do not have the exact date available. The steamers all were named for men who served the United States Steel Cor