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3. Marine News - cont'd. KRYSTAL K., which will be renamed CITY OF LUDINGTON for her new duties. The barge will have about four feet cut off her stern during the course of the construction of her towing notch, and the total overall length of the tow, with the tug in place, will be 494 feet. A change of name has recently taken place for Kinsman Lines Inc., Cleveland, which owns the straight-deck bulk carriers KINSMAN ENTERPRISE (II), (a) HAR­ RY COULBY (II)(89), and KINSMAN INDEPENDENT (III), (a) CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON (II)(62), (b) ERNEST R. BREECH (88), which date from 1927 and 1952, respec­ tively. The company is now to be known as Great Lakes Associates Inc., but there has been no explanation of the reason for the change. Only KINSMAN IN­ DEPENDENT operated in the grain trade during the 1997 season, her fleetmate remaining idle. Another corporate name change involves the 1, 000-foot tug/barge combination PRESQUE ISLE, managed by USS Great Lakes Fleet Inc. Manager of PRESQUE ISLE will now be an affiliated corporate entity known as GLF Great Lakes Corp., but it should be noted that this change will not affect any other USS Great Lakes Fleet vessels. We reported some time ago that there had been a change of ownership for the 1923-built, former Inland Lakes Transportation cement carrier LEWIS G. HAR­ RIMAN, (a) JOHN W. BOARDMAN (65), which now is being used for cement storage at Green Bay, Wisconsin. The new owner of the long-idle steamer is St. Marys Holdings. The November issue of "Marine News", monthly publication of the World Ship Society, reported the scrapping of a former laker. PLATANA, (a) PRINDOC (III)(82), (b) HANKEY (90), (c) CLARET III (94), (d) S. SARANTA (97), was sold by Mediterranean Shipbreaking Co., of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, to Dortel, of Turkey. She arrived at the breaking beach at Aliaga on July 23rd, 1997. PRINDOC (III) was built for the Paterson fleet in 1965-1966 by the Davie yard at Lauzon, Quebec. She was sold to Cayman Islands owners in 1982. The same source reported in December that the new owner of the Socanav tan­ ker L'ORME NO. 1, (a) LEON SIMARD (82), is Piuner Investments Inc., Panama. She has been renamed (c) TRADEWIND OCEAN. In the November issue, we mentioned that the sail excursion vessel ALISON LAKE, rebuilt by the Rogers interests from the former U. S. Coast Guard tug SAUK, would likely leave the lakes before the close of navigation. In fact, she did not leave her berth in the Leslie Street slip off the Toronto Turn­ ing Basin, and an even more interesting vessel is lying outboard of her at present. This is the 106-foot, 257 Gross Ton tug TECHNO ST-LAURENT (C. 391540), built in 1944 at Walkerville, Ontario, and latterly owned by Tech­ no-Navigation Ltee., of Sillery, Quebec. As yet, we know not why she is win­ tering at Toronto. Last issue, we mentioned the construction in Maine of a new ferry, EMERALD ISLE, for the service between Charlevoix and Lake Michigan's Beaver Island. We now have confirmation that EMERALD ISLE did make it into the lakes in 1997 but we have yet to see an inbound transit date for her. Another new ferry built for lake service in 1997 is MIDDLE CHANNEL (U. S. 1048910), construc­ ted by Vinette Boat Works, of Escanaba, for the Champion Auto Ferry run con­ necting Harsens Island, Michigan, with the mainland town of Algonac. A dou­ ble-ended auto ferry, she is, at 97 Gross Tons, larger than any of the exis­ ting Champion fleet, which has included CHAMPION (1941), ST. CLAIR FLATS (1946), NORTH CHANNEL (1967) and SOUTH CHANNEL (1973). In addition to the self-unloader conversion of ALGOWEST for Algoma Central Corporation, Port Weller Dry Docks is busying itself this winter with a $5. 2 million refit of Algoma's 1968-built ALGORAIL (II), which went to the ship­ yard after delivering a cargo of salt to Toronto. Meanwhile, the warship Continued - Page 14