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Long Seasons - cont'd. 12. and, eventually, SILVER ISLE. John Tackaberry recalls that Albert Irvine's brother, Victor, was chief engineer in MOHAWK DEER when John was wheeling her in 1951, while another brother, Fred, worked for the C. P. R. and retired as chief engineer of the KEEWATIN. When the SHAUGHNESSY followed the SECORD out of Owen Sound on March 24, 1945, it was reported that this departure had shaved a day off the previous record set by the SHAUGHNESSY on March 25, 1942. John Tackaberry well remem­ bers that day in 1945, because he and late T. M. H. S. member Ron Tackaberry were watching from the deck of the steamer F. V. MASSEY, on which John's father was serving as shipkeeper at the time. The event was even broadcast over CFOS, the local radio station. Officials at the Soo Canal reported that the upbound passage of the SECORD and SHAUGHNESSY in March of 1945 was the earliest opening of the canal ever recorded up until then. On March 28, 1945, another "Waterfront With Roy" column in the "Telegram" reported: "If tentative plans materialize, the Mohawk Navigation Co. freigh­ ter will carry Steep Rock iron ore out of Port Arthur this season, after she gets in a few grain trips from the head of the lakes. Commanded by Capt. Albert Irvine, she was the first vessel to enter Port Arthur this year, and her first cargo out is 360, 000 bushels of barley for Duluth. " The next day it was reported that SHAUGHNESSY and SECORD had loaded and departed within 18 hours of their arrival. In the spring of 1946, SHAUGHNESSY and SECORD beat their own record by leav­ ing Owen Sound on March 21st. They travelled together to Toledo for loads of coal to be delivered to the Algoma Steel plant at the Canadian Soo. A week later, SHAUGHNESSY was the first ship to pass through the Soo Locks for the season. In the "Telegram" of May 7, 1946, "Waterfront With Roy", under the heading "First Iron Ore", recorded: "On April 30, the Mohawk Line (sic) freighter SIR THOMAS SHAUGHNESSY arrived at the Canadian Furnace Dock at Port Colborne with the season's first cargo of iron ore from Superior, Wis. " Early in the 1946 season, a strike had begun to take effect against Canadian lake ships. Efforts were under way to block the Welland Canal by getting crews to walk off their ships at Lock 8 as the boats entered the canal down­ bound. Two hundred police were assigned to prevent the strikers from ap­ proaching the ships at Lock 8. The police line was, however, withdrawn in the afternoon of June 1, 1946, leaving any arriving Canadian ships unprotected from union action. Capt. Irvine had brought the SHAUGHNESSY down through the lift bridges above Lock 8 and was surprised to see the absence of police. He looked aft and saw that his crewmen were beginning to line the rail with their kit bags in pre­ paration for joining the strikers. Capt. Irvine reversed the steamer's en­ gine and backed the SHAUGHNESSY out through the draw of the two bridges and right on out of Port Colborne harbour and into Lake Erie, where he put the ship to anchor. He won the praise of canal officials and shipowners for pre­ venting another blockade. The next day, the Paterson steamer MANTADOC had her entire crew walk off at Lock 8, leaving only five licensed officers on board. The officers continued sailing MANTADOC down the canal. In July of 1946, the SHAUGHNESSY was engaged in carrying iron ore between U. S. lake ports under a special agreement with the U. S. government, the re­ sult of a lack of available U. S. bottoms for the strong post-war ore trade. In December of 1947, SIR THOMAS SHAUGHNESSY loaded what was reported to be the most valuable cargo of grain shipped out of Port Arthur that year. She loaded 306, 554 bushels of flax valued at $2, 250, 000 and delivered it to the elevator at Owen Sound. She fought her way through the ice to bring the first load of coal to the Algoma Steel plant at the Soo in the spring of 1951. She opened the Soo Ca-