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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. fleet up until that time, went to the famous shipbuilding firm of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Company Limited, of Newcastle, England, the contract being let early in January of 1928. LIVINGSTON and WATERTON were built as the shipyard's Hulls 1042 and 1043, respectively. LIVINGSTON's keel was laid on Tuesday, January 17th, 1928, and she was launched into the River Tyne on Tuesday, April 3rd, a scant 66 working days later. She was christened by Mrs. Edith Mackinlay. Her keel having been laid very soon after that of LI VINGSTON, the WATERTON was launched on Saturday, April 21st, 1928, her sponsor at the christening ceremonies being Mrs. Henry Muras. LIVINGSTON and WATERTON were steamers built with all the "bells and w h i s tles", not like the "built by the mile, cut off by the foot" simplicity of most of the canallers built by British yards for Canadian fleets during the 1920s. They actually were more strongly built boats, with larger Gross Ton nage, than the 1929-built FULTON and SOU THTON, which were light-scantling "dishpans" constructed by the Smith's Dock Company Ltd. at Middlesbrough on the Tees as sisterships to seven canallers built for the Hall Corporation, one for the Tree Line Navigation Company Ltd., and one for the Foote Transit Company Ltd. They also were very expensive to build, and their builder took back a substantial mortgage on both LIVINGSTON and WATERTON. It would not be many years before the shareholders of the Mathews Steamship Company would regret the fact that these boats had been built, despite their excellent de sign and attractive appearance. In fact, they had cost a then-whopping $190, 000 each to construct. LIVINGSTON and WATERTON were enrolled at Newcastle with British registry numbers 149470 and 149472, respectively. They were 253. 0 feet in length between perpendiculars (259. 6 feet overall), 4 3. 6 feet in the beam, and 21. 6 feet in depth, and they had identical tonnages of 2115 Gross and 1286 Net. Each steamer was powered by a triple expansion steam engine with cylinders of 17, 28 and 46 inches diameter, and a stroke of 35 inches, which produced 190 n. h. p. Steam at a working pressure of 200 p . s. i. was generated by two cylindrical, single-ended, coal-fired, Scotch boilers which were 12 1 / 2 feet in diameter and 11 feet long, and had a combined heating surface of 2 , 762 square feet. The engines and boilers of the two steamers were manufactured by the shipyard. These two ships were amongst the most handsome canallers ever built. They had straight stems and surprisingly full counter sterns and, although as was typical of most canallers, there was very little sheer to their hulls in the midbody section, these two boats had rather pleasing sheer both forward and aft. There was a full-topgallant forecastle, and a semi-topgallant poop. The anchors were stowed in pockets with rounded tops located just above the level of the spar deck. There was a cellular double bottom all fore and aft. Each ship had a closed steel bulwark for most of the length of the fore castle, with two prominent fairleads cut into it on each side for the mo o r ing and snubbing lines. On the forecastle head sat the texas cabin, which was not just the normal, shallow, rectangular house carried by most canal lers, but had a rounded "turret" centre section with three windows in its face. A large awning was provided to shade the entire open area of the forecastle head during the heat of summer. Above, on the bridge deck, which boasted broad wings extending out to the ship's sides and a curved central section, was located the rather large (for a canaller) pilothouse. It had five very large windows in its curved front, with another big window on each side abaft the door, and two windows in the after side of the house. A prominent sunvisor ran around the front and down both sides of the pilothouse over the windows. A very large sanitary water tank was placed on the port bridgewing, and awning Stretcher-frames were provided so that canvas could be hoisted for protection from the weather. The front of the pilothouse took the same configuration as the turret of the texas below, and there was an open pipe rail on the catwalk around the front