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Ship of the Month - cont'd. one of them, and she remained in lay-up at Toronto. 10. During 1985, OUTARDE was sold to ULS International Inc., Toronto, for d ismantling at its International Marine Salvage scrapyard which then was in operation on the east side of the outer harbour at Port Colborne. OUTARDE was towed out of the Leslie Street slip at Toronto on August 16th, 1985, and she was upbound in the Welland Canal on the 17th in tow of the tugs ATOMIC, JAMES E. M c G R A T H and B. J. MURER. Scrapping was begun within a week of O U T A R D E 's arrival at Port Colborne, and was completed by mid-November, 1985. The last of the quadruplets to wear Interlake Steamship Company colours was W I L L I A M McLAUCHLAN, although she was not carrying that name at the time. In 1965, her sistership, SAMUEL MATHER (IV), had been transferred to the Labrador Steamship subsidiary and had been renamed. The company, however, wished to keep this historic name in a place of honour within the fleet and, accordingly, the M c L A U C H L A N was renamed (b) SAMUEL MATHER (V) before she began operation in the spring of 1966. She continued to serve the fleet through the 1974 season, albeit rather sporadically because by then she was one of the smallest and least economical vessels left under the company's houseflag. Late in 1975, the MATHER was sold to Robert Pierson Holdings Limited, of Toronto, for operation in its n e w l y - f o r m e d fleet w hich was known as The Soo River Company. The MATHER was towed away from her lay-up berth at A s h tabula by the G-tug OHIO on December 19th, 1975, and on the following day she was secured alongside the West Street Wharf at Port Colborne. There she was generally spruced up during the winter, and at the same time she was converted to burn oil fuel. Enrolled at Hamil t o n under Canadian official number 370162, she was renamed (c) JOAN M. M c C U L L O U G H in honour of the wife of the fleet's operating agent. Her tonnage was shown on the Canadian register as 9071 Gross and 6599 Net. The M c C U L L O U G H was painted up in the attractive Soo River livery, wit h a black hull, white forecastle and cabins, and yellow deck trim. Her stack was white with a black smokeband at the top, and the large black outline of a shamrock. It was not until several years later that she was given the attractive white "mustache" at the bow. The McCULLOUGH, however, never did carry the Soo River "billboards" down her sides that some of the fleet's ships sported. The Pierson fleet included a number of handsome and v e nerable vessels, and one of them, named (b) PIERSON DAUGHTERS, was the former CHARLES M. SCHWAB, w hich had been one of the M c C U L LOUGH's old fleetmates from Interlake Steamship days. The SCHWAB had been acquired by Pierson during July of 1975, only a few months before Interlake also sold the MATHER to the new fleet. Another intere s t i n g Soo River steamer was the SOO RIVER TRADER, w h i c h joined the fleet in 1980. This handsome steamer had for man y years sailed as Upper Lakes Shipping's GODERICH (II), but she had started her life in the Interlake fleet as SAMUEL MAT H E R (III) back in 1906. So now the Soo River fleet contained three former Interlake steamers, and two of them had carried the name SAMUEL MATHER! Unfortunately, however, the M c C U L L O U G H was only to serve for six and a half seasons under the Soo River Company's houseflag. A l t h o u g h Robert Pierson and his associates provided dynamic leadership for their fleet of ships, kept the boats in top condition and treated their crews e x t r a o r d i n a r i l y well, the d e t e r i o r a t i n g financial climate of the early 1980s did not favour small vessel operations, and the Soo River fleet soon found itself sailing on a sea of red ink. On August 6th, 1982, Pierson Steamships Ltd. (as the parent firm by then had become known) made an assignment into b a n k r u p t c y as a result of foreclosure p roceedings inst i t u t e d by its major creditor, the C a n adian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The firm of Peat Marw i c k Ltd., Toronto, was appointed receiver. Numerous other creditors then jumped on the bandwagon and issued writs, and