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One of a series of barges built on Garden Island with Iroquoian names. Hiawatha (Hayëñ´wa´tha) was a very early Iroquoian leader and peacemaker. He was one of the founders of the council that later became the Iroquois Confederacy. He himself was either Onondaga, or Mohawk, or both. Montreal Transportation Co. Engineer's Log Mary P. Hall; Montreal Transportation Co. Annual Directors' Reports 1902, 1903, 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1913-17; Montreal Transportation Co. Charter (1917) Schedule A; Montreal Transportation Co. Directors' Minutes 9 October 1917; Montreal Transportation Co. Kingston grain ledger 29 November 1912-8 Oct 1914; Alpena Public Library Great Lakes Maritime Database; Bureau Veritas Great Lakes Register 1914 and 1915; Canada List of Shipping 1895, 1910 and 1912; Canadian Heritage Ship Information Database; Inland Lloyd's Vessel Register Canadian Hulls 1892 and 1897; Kohl Kingston's Shipwrecks; Lewis and Neilson The River Palace; Mercantile Navy List 1892, 1899 and 1904; Marine Museum of the Great Lakes Canadian Ship Registers on line; Metcalfe Canvas and Steam on Quinte Waters; Mills Barges and Scows Before 1890; Swainson A Shipping Empire: Garden Island; British Whig 19 August 1890; Canadian Railway & Marine World April 1906 and October 1917; Marine Review 5 November 1891. 63 HILDA steel river barge (C 96870). 1906-21. 458 tons gross, 418 tons net, 160.0'. Capacity 38,000 bushels of wheat = 1,150 tons. Built by Bertram Engineering Works of Toronto, launched 9 August 1898. Steel with 5" woodsheathed bottom and bilges. 1906-08 value $10,000. 1910-1916 value $14,000. 1914 insurance rating = 90 restricted to the St. Lawrence River only. 1917 value $30,000. 1918 value $25,500. 1919 value $21,000 and restricted to waters between Port Colborne and Montreal. 1920 value $18,900. 1921 insurance rating = 90 and was on the Montreal Transportation Co. books for $34,000. HILDA was one of the barges built for the Prescott Elevator Co. Ltd. That firm folded and by 1904 her owner was the St. Lawrence Terminal Co. Ltd. Montreal Transportation Co. bought her from the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Co. She was ashore with a cargo of grain on Lake Ontario on 29 August 1918. She ran aground near Galoo Island (southeast of Main Duck Island) near Kingston Ontario after being cut loose by the Montreal Transportation Co. tug D.G. THOMSON during a storm on 24 September 1919. She was salved but shortly after that she ran aground near Henderson Harbor New York with 35,000 bushels of grain on board. She was salved once again. Her ownership was transferred to Canada Steamship Lines in 1921 as part of the final winding up of the Montreal Transportation Co. fleet. Canada Steamship Lines sold her to R.G. Weddell Constr. of Trenton Ontario in 1923. They experimented with using her to carry oil in bulk but were not successful. In 1929 she was sold to Pyke Twg & Salvage of Kingston and rebuilt as a crane barge. She then had a two-deck superstructure right aft and a very large crane forward. Pyke merged into McAllister-Pyke Salvage in 1962. HILDA was sold to United Metals of Hamilton Ontario for scrap but was scuttled near Amherst Island on 7 November 1967 instead (Bascom and Gillham said 1969). 136