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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 14. Hand. 'I saw the wreck of the JOHN R. off Gray's Point in 1914, and the wheel from that ship will be in this barge. ' Her new owner has had plenty of experience in drawing sand and gravel by water, for listed among his former contracts were the LaSalle bathing beach, the harbour revetment wall, and the first jack-knife bridge at the canal. 'I figure that there is going to be a lot of work done around this harbour sooner or later and I, as a Hamil­ ton man, am going to be prepared for it. ' commented Mr. Hand. " According to Macgillivray, Albert Hand was a welfare case who lived near the waterfront. "He agreed to remove her. He stripped her down to the main deck leaving about fifteen feet of the stern on which he placed her wheelhouse. He named her NORA H. but she was never registered as such nor was Hand's ow­ nership. He pumped her out and towed her across the the city. He said he in­ tended to put a gasoline engine in her and use her in the sand business. However these things take money and Albert had none. She was observed in 1938 lying beside the ruins of Beckett's wharf at the foot of Strachan Street in Hamilton, the name NORA H. still visible on her bow. It is repor­ ted that the remains of the BROCKVILLE lie on the shore of Burlington Bay close to the north end of the Burlington Skyway Bridge and that they can be seen from a car when driving over the bridge. " BROCKVILLE's registry was closed on September 23, 1940, with the notation "Vessel permanently out of commission". Late T. M. H. S. members Ivan Brookes and John Bascom remembered the hull still visible in the late 1970s, but we are unable to confirm whether or not anything still remains of the boat as a dive site today. Perhaps a reader will know...? BROCKVILLE's building was falsely credited to Capt. John Simpson in the Great Lakes Register of 1908 and 1912, the latter edition stating erroneously that BROCKVILLE was built in Chatham in 1898! Capt. Melancthon Simpson died of pneumonia at the age of 72 on March 7, 1899, in the Albion Hotel, Toronto. The "St. Catharines Daily Standard" stated: "He was held in esteem by all whom he met and was honest and straightforward in all his bu­ siness transactions. He was one of the leading citizens when St. Catharines was a marine city. " Capt. Melancthon Simpson died intestate. Letters of Administration were ap­ plied for by his son, William, who then was residing in Buffalo, although he gave his address in the Letters as "City of Toronto, County of York", and his occupation as shipbuilder. The value of Melancthon's property was under $200, there being no real estate. Personal effects valued at $50 were listed as "interest in a shipbuilding contract". * * * Acknowledgments: For their input to this timely piece, we would like to thank Ron Beaupre, Lorne Joyce, Joan Hyslop (Archivist of the County of Grey - Owen Sound Museum), Earl Moorehead (Archivist of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston) and late T. M. H. S. members John H. Bascom and Ivan S. Brookes. Much credit must also be given to M. S. Macgillivray' s "The Steamer BROCKVILLE', a paper that relied heavily on the remembrances of the late Lt. Col. F. C. Curry as printed in "Inland Seas". * * * * * MEETING SITE AND DATES Members are reminded that, for the time being, our meetings are being held at "The Pier", Toronto's new waterfront museum located at 245 Queen's Quay West, just east of the Radisson Plaza Hotel Admiral. Flat rate parking is available at lots across the street. Winter meetings will be on Saturday af­ ternoons at 2: 00 p. m. - January 9th, February 5th and March 5th. The April meeting will revert to Friday evening - April 2nd.