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3. Marine News - cont'd. during the first full week in May, and subsequently went on the drydock for survey and inspection. She did not re-enter service, however, and was re­ turned under tow of JOHN SPENCE to Toronto's Pier 35 (north) during the evening of July 24th. Another Upper Lakes Shipping straight-decker had a less happy spring. CANA­ DIAN MARINER was towed up from Montreal and entered the Port Weller shipyard on April 12 for survey and inspection, and during the course of the work, her hull was spiffed up with a new coat of paint. The MARINER went back into service during June, but on her first downbound trip, she lost power in the St. Lawrence River, about 15 miles west of Brockville, at 10: 00 a. m. on Wed­ nesday, June 18th. Both anchors were let go but they failed to hold, and the steamer grounded hard on a rock shoal opposite Blind Bay. She was attended by the Seaway tug ROBINSON BAY, and the McKeil tugs EVANS McKEIL, WYATT McKEIL, GLENBROOK and CAROLYN JO, as well as the lighter D. C. EVEREST and spud barge HENRY T. The EVEREST took 2, 400 tons of grain out of the MARINER, which was refloated during the morning of June 21st, following which the MARINER went to Prescott for inspection, and then was allowed to proceed to Quebec City to unload her cargo. The MARINER then steamed upbound to Port Weller Dry Docks, where she went on drydock for major repairs to her bow and bottom plating. After the repairs were completed, CANADIAN MARINER was towed by McKeil tugs to Toronto where, on August 6th, she was secured along the west face of Pier 35. Yet another ULS straight-decker that ran into trouble in the spring was CA­ NADIAN MINER, (a) MAPLECLIFFE HALL (88), (b) LEMOYNE (II)(94), which also suffered a loss of power. This incident happened on April 23rd off Walker­ ville, Ontario, in the Detroit River. The MINER eventually was put to anchor, following which the G-tugs WISCONSIN and COLORADO took her under tow to the Ford Canada dock. There she remained for engine repairs lasting some eight hours. On their way back to Lake Ontario this summer are the Hamilton excursion boat MACASSA BAY and her St. Catharines counterpart GARDEN CITY (II). The two passenger vessels have been on the east coast serving as crew ferries for the construction of the Hibernia oil-drilling rig, but were no longer needed there after the platform was placed in position. Accordingly, both boats were returned to their Lake Ontario owners, GARDEN CITY making the whole trip back under her own power during July. MACASSA BAY was brought under tow as far as Valleyfield, Quebec, and then proceeded under her own power to Hamilton. The Toronto firetug WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE, remaining in service despite the city's fruitless efforts to sell her, had a fire to fight on June 26th , 1997. The Ukrainian bulk carrier DOBRUSH was being unloaded at the Redpath Sugar plant at the foot of Jarvis Street, and front-end loaders had been dropped into her holds to clean up the last of the raw sugar cargo. One of the loaders suffered a malfunction and caught fire, and the MACKENZIE was summoned to the scene, along with the Metro Police launch MTP 11. The fire was extinguished without major damage to the DOBRUSH, but the front-end loader was "toast", as evidenced by its wreckage which later was observed as it lay on the pier. Despite the running of special dinner cruises twice a week, passenger loads on the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission's Manitoulin Island ferry CHI-CHEEMAUN were running below 1996 and even 1995 levels into mid-July. Then, on the evening of July 16th, the ferry suffered thrust and clutch bearing problems in one of her engines and, in the middle of her high sea­ son, the ferry had to run on one engine, on a reduced schedule, while the damaged engine was repaired. After a week of reduced service that played ha­ voc with traffic, CHI-CHEEMAUN was ready to resume full operation on July 24th. This problem may have hurt the service worse than the crankshaft prob­ lem on the other engine that ended the boat's 1996 season three weeks early.