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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. her owners. She did, however, get into trouble during her first season when, on Tuesday, October 20, 1908, she ran hard aground on Gravel Island. She did considerable damage to her bottom in the stranding, and was released only after some 1 ,000 tons of coal were lightered out of her. No Canadian dry dock was able to accommodate OSLER at that time, and so she was taken to a shipyard in the U. S. A. for repairs. It is interesting to note that there are three Gravel Islands on the lakes, and the report of the stranding did not indicate which one was involved. One of them is on Lake Superior near Thun der Bay, another lies off the south shore of Drummond Island in northern Lake Huron, and the third is near Green Bay on Lake Michigan. The details of the Gravel Island stranding were taken from "The Railway and Marine World" issue of November 1908. On the other hand, the record of casu alties contained in Sessional Paper No. 21, the Forty-Second Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 1909, indicated that the stranding of E. B. OSLER occurred on October 13 rather than October 20. No other details were given, and we are unable to confirm which date might be correct. We should mention, however, that the Marine and Fisheries report also indicates that E. B. OSLER was involved in another stranding on May 28, 1908 (during her first month of service). Un fortunately, the report gives no details at all concerning the incident. E. B. OSLER, despite these two accidents in her first season, served the St. Lawrence and Chicago Steam Navigation Company Ltd. well. As far as we know, the only change that was made to the steamer during this period was the ad dition of a third lifeboat, which was placed on the starboard side of the boat deck aft. Although we have no way of knowing for sure, we suspect that this addition was made as a consequence of the disappearance with all hands of JAMES CARRUTHERS in the Great Storm of 1913. There is no doubt that the company took the loss of its new flagship very hard, and when it built J. H. G. HAGARTY the following year, it ordered that she be built with old-fashion ed, sectional, wooden hatch covers instead of with the telescoping steel co vers with which the CARRUTHERS had been equipped, for it was thought that the CARRUTHERS' new-fangled hatch covers might have contributed to the steamer's loss. Indeed, the HAGARTY was even built the other way around on the stocks at the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company's yard; JAMES CARRUTHERS had been built with her bow facing out toward the harbour, but HAGARTY was laid down facing inward, a rather unusual change (under normal circumstances) consi dering that the two ships were virtual hull sisters. One might have assumed that a company such as the St. L. & C. S. N. Co. would have been included in the series of mergers which resulted in the formation during 1913 of Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., Montreal. Such, however, was not the case, and this small fleet carried on through the 1915 season. By that time, the fleet consisted of only four vessels, those being THE IROQUOIS of 1902, W. D. MATTHEWS of 1903, E. B. OSLER of 1908, and J. H. G. HAGARTY of 1914. The May 1916 issue of "Canadian Railway and Marine World", however, carried an interesting article entitled "Absorption of St. Lawrence and Chi cago Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. ", and the following excerpts are taken from it. "After the declaration of a dividend of 10% for 1915, and a bonus of 2% , both of which were paid on Jan. 2, 1916, the St. L. & C. S. N. C o . 's shares, which had risen to $125 in Dec., 1915, sold ex dividend down to $115, hut within the following two months a strong demand arose and it soon became evident that some interests were trying to obtain control. Towards the end of March, a brokerage firm approached the directors with a view to purchasing the sha res, or at least a controlling interest, but the directors did not think the price suggested represented the property's value and issued a circular to shareholders to that effect. "The offer is said to have been made on behalf of the Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., and another offer at an advanced price is said to have been m a d e a lit tle later by the same interests. Then, it is said, Jas. Playfair, of Midland, Ont., and associates made a higher offer, which was followed by a still high