The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

38 COTEAU aka "Montre Coteau" ex BELLE steel harbour lighter later river barge (C 96868). 1907-1919. Original: 349 tons gross, 335 net, 130.0'. Capacity 24,000 bushels. As rebuilt: 445 tons gross, 410 net, 157.6'. Built by Bertram Engineering Works of Toronto in 1897. Steel hull with wood-sheathed bottom. 1908 value $4,000. 1910-1916 value $10,000. 1914 insurance rating = 90 restricted to St. Lawrence River. 1917 value $15,000. 1918 value $12,750. 1919 value $12,931.63. 1920 value $11,638.47. Although she was originally built for the Prescott Elevator Co. Ltd., they went bankrupt and by 1904 BELLE's owner was the St. Lawrence Terminal Co. Ltd. She was bought for $4,000 by Montreal Transportation Co. to be a harbour lighter at Montreal and was chartered to the Montreal Warehouse Co. She was rebuilt and lengthened at Kingston in 1908-09 at a cost of $4,500. Her name was changed on 17 July 1909. She was repaired in 1913 and 1916. She went to the Canadian Towing and Wrecking Co. of Port Arthur Ontario as part of a package with the barge MARY E. MACLACHLAN and $120,000 as payment for the steamer VINMOUNT. In 1924 she went to Dominion Towing and Salvage, also of Port Arthur, then to Sin-Mac Lines in 1929-36. Sin-Mac fitted her with a deck crane. United Towing and Salvage owned her in 193756. In 1937 she was being towed by the steamer NEEBING (C 130435, 1,109 tons register) en route to Nipigon with a cargo of gravel when NEEBING foundered. COTEAU's crew picked up the nine survivors. COTEAU was broken up in 1957. All the barges of the Prescott Elevator Company carried the first names of women. She was possibly renamed for the Grand Coteau, a geographical feature crossing what was then the principal grain growing area of the Canadian prairies. Montreal Transportation Co. Annual Directors' Reports 1908 and 1913-20; Montreal Transportation Co. Charter (1917) Schedule A; Montreal Transportation Co. Directors' Minutes 20 May 1907, 1 and 14 October 1908 and 13 December 1919; Montreal Transportation Co. Engineers' Logs R.G.A. Weaver 1 May-14 Oct 1917, Mary P. Hall and John C. Mann; Montreal Transportation Co. Kingston Grain Ledgers 29 November 1912-8 Oct 1914, 10 July-29 Oct 1916, 17 May-24 Oct 1917, 20 July-18 November 1917, 30 Aug-16 November 1917, 6 May-15 November 1918, 22 May-24 November 1918; Montreal Transportation Co. Kingston Letter Book Sept 1916; Montreal Transportation Co. Ships' Logs Mary May 1918, Mary P. Hall 3 June 1918-30 November 1918 and P.B. McNaughton May-Sept 1918; Alpena Public Library Great Lakes Maritime Database; American Bureau of Shipping Great Lakes Register 1919 and 1921; Bascom and Gillham Early Ships of Canada Steamship Lines; Bureau Veritas Great Lakes Register 1914; Canada List of Shipping 1910, 1927, 1929-35, 1937, 1950 and 1956; Canadian Heritage Ship Information Database; Gillham and Onchulenko Beaconsfield, Mohawk and Red Barges; Mercantile Navy List 1899, 1904, 1907, 1923 and 1925; British Whig 17 October 1913; Canadian Railway & Marine World September 1909; Detroit Marine Historian February 1952. 39 CROSBY river barge (scow). 1869-1884. 177 tons register, 103.2'. Capacity 12,000 bushels. Built at Bedford Mills Canada West by William Saunders 118