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11. Ship of the Month - cont'd. down to the Ramey's Bend scrapyard, while the tugs left GEORGE H. INGALLS in the slip on the inside of the Maple Leaf Mills pier in Port Colborne's outer harbour. Having got the McCARTHY safely into the scrapyard, the tugs returned for the INGALLS, and she was secured in Ramey's Bend on July 2nd. The two sisterships lay side-by-side in the Marine Salvage scrapyard, looking rather handsome together despite the fact that they were beginning to show their years of idleness. Work was started on the scrapping of T. J. Mc­ CARTHY during the summer of 1966, and it was completed late that year. Your Editor well remembers, despite the passage of 32 years in the interim, the experience of walking into the hull of the McCARTHY at the scrapyard, after her bow had been cut away, and walking up the auto ramps inside her hold, to emerge on the platform over the spar deck, and then to walk up the highest ramp onto what was left of the flight deck. It was a very strange experience for someone used to the normal hull and deck configuration of a lake bulk carrier, or even a package freighter. The oil burners from the T. J. MCCARTHY'S boilers were removed as the steam­ er was scrapped, and they were sent to Kingston for possible installation in the Canada Steamship Lines seIf-unloader GLENEAGLES. We do not believe that they ever were used, however. The scrapping of GEORGE H. INGALLS was begun once the McCARTHY was finished, and the last of the INGALLS was gone by early in 1967. Thus ended the. saga of the flight-decked auto carrier on the Great Lakes. Those specialty carriers were strange vessels indeed, but McCarthy painted them up in an ex­ tremely handsome manner, and the overall effect of the flight decks served only to make the McCARTHY and the INGALLS even more interesting, rather than rendering them unattractive. The sight of one of them arriving at Port Col­ borne to take on bunkers, the late evening sun gleaming on her green-and- white sides, is something that anyone who witnessed it will never forget. The same is true for anyone who was ever up on the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River, and saw one of these ships steam downriver with a full load of shiny, new Chrysler automobiles crowding her decks. * * * Ed. Note: We acknowledge the writings and photographs of the late John H. Bascom and James M. Kidd in the preparation of this feature, as well as photos obtained from other sources. We are grateful to John 0. Greenwood for his history of the T. J. McCarthy Steamship Company which appeared in Volume Two of The Fleet History Series. If any member should be able to assist us with photos of the WILLIAM L. BROWN or MARY C. ELPHICKE taken during their Elphicke and/or Canada Atlantic service, or the INGALLS or TREMAINE in Western Steamship Corporation co­ lours, we would appreciate hearing from them. * * * Postscript to our feature: After we had penned this feature, we noted that later American Bureau of Shipping registers did indicate a change in the spar deck configuration of both T. J. McCARTHY and GEORGE H. INGALLS, but we are unable to ascertain whether the change took place when they were recon­ verted to auto carriers in 1946, or when they received their flight decks four years later. In any event, the McCARTHY latterly was shown as having 15 hatches, each 9' x 32', spaced on 12-foot centres. The INGALLS had a slight­ ly different hatch configuration, with 13 hatches, each 9' x 32', spaced on 12-foot centres, plus two hatches measuring 9'9" x 20'. These spar deck hatches on both ships were shown as being "not in use", which was understan­ dable under the circumstances, but makes us wonder why the hatches were al­ tered at all if they were not going to serve any useful purpose. We may ne­ ver know...