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Ship of the Month - Cont'd. 10. had been commanding officer of the R. C. N. corvette OWEN SOUND as a lieu tenant commander in the Canadian navy, and had also served aboard the cor­ vette COLLINGWOOD. The clipping indicated that GEORGE HINDMAN would head to the Lakehead for a cargo of grain before putting in an appearance at her new home port of Owen Sound. The next of the Brookes clippings to mention GEORGE HINDMAN is an unsourced item datelined Windsor, June 4th, 1956. "At Sarnia yesterday, the barge (sic) GEORGE HINDMAN broke its towing cable and drifted into shore, forcing two freighters to anchor in midstream. The barge was later recovered and is under tow to Owen Sound. " We think the news service got this item well and truly garbled. We aren't sure how to interpret this story except to say that we suspect that GEORGE HINDMAN was towing one of the company's barges at the time, and that it was this unidentified barge that broke loose and stopped traffic on the St. Clair River. That GEORGE HINDMAN (and not only the Hindman tugs) did tow the company's barges is borne out by another 1956 Brookes clipping. It also is unsourced, and is datelined Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, October 9th: "The barge DELKOTE from Owen Sound, with 13 men aboard, drifted in storm-tossed Lake Superior for almost nine hours Sunday (October 7th) before a rescue freighter could connect a tow line. "The DELKOTE broke away from her towing vessel, the GEORGE HINDMAN of Owen Sound, (when) 130 miles northwest of Sault Ste. Marie about 3: 30 a. m. Twenty-foot waves, churned up by 40-mile winds, buffeted the powerless craft. "The HINDMAN, commanded by (Capt. ) J. M. Watson of Owen Sound, was unable to get a line aboard the barge. The CAPTAIN C. D. SECORD of the Mohawk Trans­ portation Company of Montreal reached the scene about 9 a. m. in answer to a distress call and more than three hours later succeeded in picking up the barge, commanded by (Capt. ) Alexander McLean of Collingwood. All three ves­ sels took shelter in the lee of Michipicoten Island until the storm abated. The HINDMAN and DELKOTE were en route to Fort William. " As it developed, 1956 was not a particularly good year for GEORGE HINDMAN (II). To cap a season of runaway barges, the motorvessel (she was repowered in 1955 ) was involved in a collision in the St. Lawrence canal system. At about 6: 00 p. m. on Tuesday, November 13th, GEORGE HINDMAN collided with the salt-water vessel MANCHESTER EXPLORER on Lake St. Louis, above the upper en­ trance to the Lachine Canal. The salty was bound up into the lakes (no doubt for Toronto), while the HINDMAN was downbound with a cargo of grain for Montreal. According to press reports, and as confirmed by photos of the ships taken after the mishap, the HINDMAN received some minor damage to her bow, while the MANCHESTER EXPLORER'S port side plating was buckled in from the gunwale to the waterline, just at the break of the forecastle. Both ships were checked out for safety by the authorities, and the salty had to go to drydock (we are not sure where) for repairs. The damage to GEORGE HINDMAN was not severe enough to require repairs until she went into winter quarters at Owen Sound. (The Hindman fleet almost always laid its ships up in its home port for the winter, and looked after all but the most major re­ pairs during lay-up. ) For those who do not remember her, we should note that MANCHESTER EXPLORER (Br. 184858) was a frequent visitor to the lakes for more than ten years. Owned by Manchester Liners Ltd., of Manchester, England, which operated a regular line service into the lakes for many years, the EXPLORER and her virtually exact sistership MANCHESTER PIONEER (Br. 184857) were built in 1952 at Birkenhead by Cammell, Laird & Co. Ltd. They were each 250. 0 (258. 0 over­ all) x 43. 1 x 16. 9, 1805 Gross and 707 Net. They were steamers, each having two steam turbines with direct reduction gearing, made by the shipbuilders. Each steamer had two watertube boilers to generate steam.