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9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. berstone by Marine Salvage Ltd. On May 15, 1969, with no regular trade available for SUSAN HINDMAN and only odd tows to keep her occupied, the Hindman Transportation Company Ltd. sold SUSAN HINDMAN to the Port Colborne Tug Company, an affiliate of Herb Fraser & Associates, a Port Colborne ship repair facility. Her new owner renamed her (h) HERBERT A. on August 9, 1969, and used her on various towing assign­ ments in the Welland Canal area. Her hull was painted black with a prominent orange boot-top, while her cabins were orange with white trim. The stack was white, with a dark maroon band and black top. On the maroon band was a dark blue "bow tie", in the two halves of which appeared the white letters 'P' and ' C '. The old mainmast was removed, and in its place was set a tripod mast, with a small boom to work the lifeboats, the old radial davits having been removed. One of HERBERT A . 's first jobs for the Port Colborne Tug Company was another scrap tow. On August 30th, 1969, HERBERT A. towed the 1899-built, former Pa­ terson steamer PORTADOC (III), (a) H. C. FRICK (06), (b) E. A. S. CLARKE (I) (16), (c) MARS (III)(26), (d) CANADOC (I)(61), from lay-up at Humberstone to Port Maitland, Ontario, where she would load on deck a dismantled oil rig, destined for delivery to Trois Rivieres, Quebec. PORTADOC was taken down the Welland Canal with this massive and unusual deck cargo on September 16th, HERBERT A. handling this tow as well, assisted by YVON SIMARD. After deli­ vering the oil rig safely at Trois Rivieres, PORTADOC was towed overseas to Vado, Italy, for scrapping, the North Atlantic crossing being made in a tan­ dem tow with the former Misener steamer NIXON BERRY. Another interesting scrap tow job in which HERBERT A. participated saw the last two "Wolvin" type canallers head to the breakers. MANZZUTTI and MANCOX were taken down the Welland Canal in May of 1970 by HERBERT A. and JAMES WHALEN, en route to Hamilton where the venerable craneships were dismantled by United Steel and Metals. MANZZUTTI, (a) J. S. KEEFE (16), (b) PARAME (21), (c) GLENFARN (27), (d) CANMORE (42), (e) ASHLEAF (51), had been built in 1903 at Buffalo. Her sistership MANCOX, built in 1903 at Superior, Wis­ consin, was (a) H. G. DALTON (16), (b) COURSEULLES (21), (c) GLENDOCHART (27), (d) CHATSWORTH (42), (e) BAYLEAF (51). Not only were these steamers interesting in that they were part of the first major "class" of sistership canallers built (long before British shipyards starting churning out large groups of sister canallers), but it is ironic that they were sisterships to BLANCHE HINDMAN (I) and HELEN HINDMAN (I), mentioned previously as having been owned by the Diamond Steamship Company Ltd. On August 3rd, 1970, HERBERT A. was at Toronto to pick up the Halco tanker INLAND TRANSPORT, (a) STEEL CHEMIST (46), (b) THE INLAND (49), (c) TRANSIN­ LAND (68), built in 1926. Acquired by the Hall Corporation in 1968, HERBERT A. towed her down Lake Ontario to the McNamara shipyard at Whitby, where she underwent a much-needed refurbishing. The venerable tanker was not to serve for long, however, for she was retired from service following a November 4, 1972, grounding in the North Channel of Lake Huron, which led to the weeping of her petroleum product cargo through loosened hull seams. After four years of idleness and vandalism at the Government Wharf at Sarnia, INLAND TRANS­ PORT was towed by the McQueen tug ATOMIC to Harry Gamble's shipyard at Port Dover, Ontario, where she was scrapped in 1976. On September 14th, 1970, HERBERT A. departed Cleveland, Ohio, towing the old steam dredge KING COAL and the derrick scow AFT, the latter having been cre­ ated from the cut-down stern section of the venerable (1897) steamer STEEL KING (II), (a) STARRUCCA (12), (b) DELOS W. COOKE (41). Both KING COAL and AFT, formerly owned by the Esco Dredge and Fill Company, an Erie Sand affi­ liate, had been sold to Marine Salvage Ltd. for scrapping at its Ramey's Bend scrapyard at Humberstone. Late on the 14th, however, the tow ran into heavy weather and KING COAL sank in some 36 feet of water, just offshore and to the west of Fairport, Ohio. HERBERT A. did manage to get AFT safely to