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Ship of the Month - cont'd. more than 250 feet, and great pieces of steel fifty feet square were hurled into the air. Then, with a mighty roar came the sound of the explosion, f ol lowed ten minutes later by a small tidal wave, which moved quickly toward the breakwater, and washing over the great stone piers, started for the i n ner harbor. Freighters away up the Buffalo River and city ship canal felt the effects. "In the vicinity of the explosion, the water was boiling and bubbling on the surface. The launch party made an attempt to get near the scene, but the current was too strong and they returned to port. 'We cannot tell whether the explosion was a success until we send divers down to the bottom of the l a k e , ' said S u p t . Johnson last night. He added that the water was too muddy to make an inspection of the wreck, but expressed belief that the hull was badly shattered. "The downtown office buildings and other structures whose foundations are on bed rock, felt the force of the explosion. Numerous telephone calls were r e ceived by Lieut. John F. Connor in charge of the United States hydrographic office from men and women asking what was the cause of the shock. Some e x pressed belief it was an earthquake. Because the seismograph is out of com mission temporarily, no record of the explosion was recorded at Canisius College in north Main Street. It was stated at that institution last night that the shock would have undoubtedly broken the needle on the instrument. "Under the terms of the contract b e t w e e n the w r e c k i n g firm and fede ral e n gineers, t h i r t y - f i v e feet of water must flow over the w r e c k before the m o n e y is paid by the gove rnment. A n i n s p e c t i o n of the c o n d i t i o n of the sunken hull w ill be made by the local federal e n g i n e e r s . " And so ends the story of W. C. RICHARDSON (I). The circumstances of her loss can only be described as highly unusual, and the numerous ineffectual sal vage efforts as bizarre. Everybody who worked on the RICHARDSON wreck lost money on the project, and it seems likely that they all wished they never had heard of the W. C. RICHARDSON. A steamer which enjoyed a much longer and happier life was W. C. RICHARDSON (II), (a) WAINWRIGHT (16), and we are pleased to be able to show our readers a rare photograph of WAINWRIGHT as she rested on the ways of the Detroit Shipbuilding Company at Wyandotte, Michigan, just prior to the launch of the yard's Hull 175 on Saturday, January 25th, 1908. The photo shows WAINWRIGHT flying her christening burgee from a temporary flagstaff rigged over the p i lothouse, a sure sign that the launch was imminent. In respect of W. C. RICHARDSON (II), there is little we can add to the d e tail presented in our first feature. We should, however, mention that during June or July of 1927, she was involved in a collision on Lake Erie with the steamer WILLIAM C. ATWATER (36), (b) E. J. KULAS (II)(53), (c) BEN MOREELL (I ) (55), (d) THOMAS E. MILLSOP (II)(75), (e) E. J. NEWBERRY (82), (f) CEDA R GLEN. Details of this event, unfortunately, are obscure and reports are c on tra dic tor y. As a Columbia Transportation craneship in her later years, W. C. RICHARDSON (II) frequented many ports around the lakes, carrying all sorts of unusual cargoes. She was a particularly frequent visitor to the Saginaw River, bringing cargoes of pig iron and coke to the Chevrolet foundry, and loading many cargoes of scrap iron and steel out of the Saginaw Dock and Terminal Company's wharf at Carrollton, Michigan, a suburb of Saginaw. She spent a number of winters laid up at the Carrollton dock, often in company with the CARROLLTON herself, and sometimes with other Columbia craneships such as BUCKEYE (I) or G. G. POST. The Dock Company employees carried out winter r e pairs on the vessels laid up there. Your Editor personally recalls an occasion during the summer of 1967 when, driving up 1-75 en route to the Soo, he and his father found their car to be