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

Marine News - c o n t 'd . A. The summer of 1992 saw the usual quota of warships touring the lakes. The U . S. Navy sent in the big assault landing ship U . S . S. BOULDER (her second lake trip), the fast frigate SAMUEL ELIOT MORRISON, and the little LCU (Lan ding Craft Utility) 1680. The French F . S. NIVOSE was in the lakes during A u gust, spending several days at Toronto. We saw the H . M . C . S. OT TAWA during May, but the most impressive naval visitor was the brand new Canadian Patrol Frigate H . M . C . S. HALIFAX, built by Saint John Shipbuilding. The prototype of a new generation of Canadian warships, her keel was laid on March 19, 1988, and she was commissioned at Halif ax on June 29, 1992. She visited Toronto from September 3 through 7, and was open most days for public inspection. An article in the June/ Ju ly issue of "International Dredging Review" gave more details of the appearance of D. C. EVEREST at Toronto to dig c o n t a m i n a ted soil out of the Parliament Street slip. The project was conducted by Environment Canada in an effort to find a means of conta in in g polluted s edi ment without di sturbing the water column during dredging. The experiment featured use of a special Cable-Arm, pr ec ision-sealed clamshell bucket which could lift 275 cubic yards of material per bite without digging a hole, as a conventional dredging bucket would do. The reclaimed sediment was placed in a hold fitted with a gra vi ty -f ed filtr at io n of drainage tiles wra pp ed in filter fabric, and after the material settled out, the water was pumped to a secondary holding compartment. The EVEREST then carried both liquids and solids to the Cherry Street experimental treatment facility for processing. It ha rdly seems possible that, 25 years ago this month, your Editor had the honour of being amongst the last passengers ever to sail aboard a t r a d i t i o n al lake overnight passenger steamer, as the Chicago, Duluth & Georg ia n Bay Transit Company's SOUTH AMERI C A N made her final voyage, a tearful passage from Detroit to Montreal. In October of 1967, we knew that SOUTH AMERICAN, sold to the Seafarers' International Union for use at its training facility at Piney Point, Maryland, wo uld face an unce rt ai n future, but we were u n p r e pared for what was to ha ppen over the next t w o - a n d - a - h a l f - d e c a d e s . The "SOUTH", never used by the S . I. U., made her way to a disused shipyard at Camden, New Jersey, where for years she moul de re d away, half-sunk, her w o o d en cabins decaying, her ma chinery removed, and her interior decim at ed by vandals. Resurrected a few years ago, she was towed to Baltimore, it being rumoured that various groups might purchase her and take the old ship back to Detroit for static use on the wa terfront there. But, as might have been anticipated, such plans came to naught, and the old girl finally has been put out of her misery. On Tuesday, August 18, 1992, Kurt Iron Works, B a l t i more, owner of SOUTH AM ERICAN since 1988, began cutting up the ship for scrap, having despaired that anyone would come forward with the means to preserve the ship in a re spectable manner. In reality, however, the career of SOUTH A M E RICAN ended back on that wet afternoon of October 16, 1967, when the last lake nightboat depar te d her dock at the foot of Detroit's Woodw ar d Avenue, to sail forever into memory. In the Mid-Summ er issue, we reported the July 13 grounding of the Interlake Steamship Company's MESABI MINER on the Bayfield Turn of the St. Mary's R i ver at the Soo. She was docked at the Soo for in spection and then was turned back and sent to Bay Ship bu il di ng at Sturgeon Bay for repairs to her s u b stantial bottom damage. Repairs completed, the MINER was upbound at the Soo on August 6 on her first trip after the accident. Incidentally, on August 8, Interlake's straight- de ck er J. L. MAUTHE arrived at the DeTour coal dock for a summer lay-up. She went back into service on September 3rd. The "Chicago Tribune" reporte d on September 1st that the U . S. Coast Guard is preparing to amend safety regulations to permit the opera ti on of ri ve r-barge traffic on Lake Mich ig an from Chicago up to Milwaukee. Such traffic, e m a n a t ing from the Miss is si pp i River system, prese nt ly has access to the port of Chicago from the Illinois Wate rw ay via the Chicago San it ar y and Ship Canal and the Calumet Sag Channel, but has never been perm it te d to operate on the open lake. The change, altho ug h opposed by several organizations, including