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13. Ship of the Month - cont'd. ports at the western end of the lake. Later it was stated that she could not be altered readily to suit that trade, and had been resold for $1, 000 and would probably be used as a ferry boat to LaSalle Park, across the bay from Hamilton, in 1932. According to Macgillivray, the new owner probably was Grant Near who, according to an article in the "Hamilton Spectator" in 1936 (sic), placed her on the LaSalle Park ferry run from Hamilton. "By 1934, Near found that she was a losing proposition and laid her up at the park wharf. On October 5, 1934, the same Albert R. Irvine who earlier had bought her for $1, 500 and sold her for $1, 000 wrote to the Department of Marine at Ottawa regarding her. He was considering buying her for the Port Arthur - Silver Isle run and enquired about changing her name, dockage charges, etc. However, he did not buy her but bought instead the larger and more modern steel steamer WAUBIC. " It appears that BROCKVILLE lay abandoned at Hamilton during 1935. A "Specta­ tor" item in 1936 said: "If there was a Davey Jones' locker in Hamilton Bay, then the s. s. BROCKVILLE, veteran steamboat of the bay, would be among those present. She is lying over at LaSalle Park dock with the after part of her main deck awash after three years' inactivity. Through the co-operation of the Hamilton Harbour Commission an effort is going to be made by the Sea Scouts to pump her dry and tow her over to the south side of the bay between Bay and James Streets, where she will be moored as a lifesaving lookout. " That did not transpire, and a later item from the "Spectator" reported BROCKVILLE, "which for two years has been abandoned and lain at the LaSalle Park dock, with water covering her main deck, is being given a new lease of life, but this time as as sand and gravel barge... Albert Hand, 418 Hughson Street north, who had the hull presented to him as a gift by the Hamilton Harbour Commission, stated to the 'Spectator' that she made her first appearance here in 1916 (sic), carrying passengers over to the park dock, where she ended her life in the capacity of a passenger ship. " This report is, unfortunately, fraught with chronological error... and we omit the next paragraph simply because it is so erroneous. "The vessel has been through a lot in the last 24 months. Vandals stripped her of every piece of copper and brass and anything else of value before her propellers had hardly stopped turning. Her engine was removed by Mr. Near and sold, as was anything that the thieves had left. Next, the Sea Scouts this spring decided that she would make a good headquarters if moored over on the north side of the bay, and her hull was pumped dry. This idea fell through and down to the bottom once more returned the BROCKVILLE. Other or­ ganizations had designs upon her, but nothing materialized. By marine law, a vessel that has been abandoned for two years is the property of the owners of the dock where it is moored, and so the Harbour Commission had the prob­ lem of disposing of a 105-foot boat on their hands. "Interviewed by the 'Spectator' as he was stripping the superstructure from her hull, Mr. Hand was most pleased with his gift. 'She will make the best self-propelled barge in these waters, ' he said. 'Her planking is fine and with a few minor repairing jobs she will be in excellent condition after I have put a motor in her. ' Mr. Hand, with his son and five other men working with him, have removed her pilot house from the forward position and placed it aft in the manner (? ) of a lake freighter. The engine will be installed in the old aft passenger cabin within two weeks time, if all goes well. Permission will be sought from the Harbour Commission to have the hull out­ fitted at the John Street dock. 'When I have finished with her and planked the interior of the hull, a coat of paint and a new name, no one will ever know her for what she was, ' grinned the veteran fisherman, who incidentally, is the nephew of Abe Hand, the well-known fisherman at Winona. "When the boat steams (sic) forth after its first cargo of sand the name that will grace its stern will be the NORA H., this being the name of Mrs. Hand. 'I never saw a ship with a man's name that came to any good, ' said Mr.