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Ship of the Month - cont'd. Weitzel Lock, with the nearly-completed canal administration building v i s i ble in the background. At this stage, the WEED had a black hull, with her name painted in white way up on the forecastle rather than in black and low down as it had been during the Western Transit charter. The turtle-back was, as always for this steamer, white, and there was a thin white stripe around the hull at the level of the spar deck; this stripe lasted through the 1904 season. The cabins were a dark shade, most probably brown, except for the pilothouse, which was white. The stack was all black. Three of the masts were buff, but the mizzen was painted black, and the top of the mainmast also was black, but only from the accumulation of soot. Meanwhile, EMILY P. WEED had suffered a grounding and a fuel problem back in 1893, as reported by the "Buffalo Enquirer" on April 22, 1893. "The steamer EMILY P. WEED had a rather unfortunate experience on her first trip (of the year). She left here for Toledo with but 51 tons of fuel (coal) on board. It is a 40-hour trip (there and back) and the WEED burns at least a ton an hour, so there is not much allowance made for delay. The WEED got aground in the Maumee River (at Toledo), and it is said to have cost in the neighborhood of $ 1 , 500 to get her off. No additional fuel was taken on and the captain was forced to burn about $800 worth of wheat to get her (back) into B u f f a l o ." Thanks to reports of another strange incident, we know where the WEED laid up for the winter of 1893-1894. The "Buffalo Enquirer" of Saturday, December 16th, 1893, reported: "Buffalo River on the Rampage - A Great Rush of Water and Ice. The big steamer EMILY P. WEED of the Hollister Transportation Co. broke from her mooring above the Michigan St. bridge and sailed down the stream at a lively rate. The first object the vessel struck was the bridge, which it opened in short order and came down past the foot of Main St. There were several men on the drifting steamer and their shouts attracted the attention of the crew of the tug GRACE DANFORTH. The tug started after the runaway and caught her near the Lackawanna trestle and succeeded in bringing her to moorings near the foot of Main Street... The water is still rising... As the steamer WEED went down the river this morning, she ripped the jibboom of the schooner RICHARD WI NSLOW. " This incident bears a remarkable resemblance to the events of January 21, 1959, at Buffalo, involving the gale and floodwater-driven steamers MacGILVRAY SHIRAS and MICHAEL K. TEWKSBURY, in which the Michigan Avenue lift bridge over the Buffalo River was demolished. The powerless SHIRAS negotiated several sharp bends in the river, and after hitting the TEWKSBURY and tearing her loose, also passed through the Ohio Street bridge (whose crew, unlike the men at Michigan Avenue, managed to get the bridge opened in t i m e ). An August 27, 1894, report from Sault Ste. Marie: "The steamer WEED, bound down, loaded with general merchandise and flour, isaground at Round Island (in the lower St. Mary's River). The tugs (GEO. E . ) BROCKWAY and GLADIATOR have gone to her assistance. " The WEED subsequently went into the Mills d r y dock at Buffalo for repairs which required the replacement of five or six steel plates. On April 27, 1895, Permanent Certificate of Enrollment No. 2 was issued to the EMILY P. WEED at Rochester, New York. A change of ownership occurred the following year, and the steamer was re-registered at Erie, Pennsylvania, under Permanent Enrollment No. 10. The certificate shows that James McBrier, manufacturer, of Erie, owned a 4/16 share of EMILY P. WEED, and that similar shares were owned by W. J. Sands, of Erie, and by John Thompson, of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. E. D. Carter, of Erie, owned a 2/16 share of the ship, while Alex Jarecki and Fred Jarecki, also of Erie, owned 1/16 each. The new certificate was dated April 1st, 1896. At this time, James McBrier also owned and operated the wooden steamers FEDORA and NYANZA (17), (b) LANDBO . There is some indication that he also