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Ship of the Month No, 250 WHAT BECAME OF TARA HALL? Part Two - By Capt. Gerry Ouderkirk - with The Editor When space limitations forced us to leave the story of the Harrison tug NOR­ THERN, (a) WATCHFUL (25? ), (b) XELDA (29? ), (c) ZELDA (36), she had just re­ floated the Owen Sound Transportation Company Ltd. passenger and freight steamer MANITOULIN from Clapperton Island, in the North Channel of Lake Hu­ ron, in late May of 1946, although the carferry JACQUELINE had been sunk du­ ring the salvage effort. But NORTHERN had done her job well, and both MANI­ TOULIN and JACQUELINE survived the incident. We now resume our story, and trust that our readers have not suffered too much angst over having to wait a month to hear the rest of the venerable tug's tale. * * * In the spring of 1946, John Harrison and Sons Co. Ltd., the owner of NOR­ THERN, acquired the tug T. J. SCOTT and the lighter T. J. S. NO. 1. Built as the steam-powered fishing tug EUREKA (U. S. 207020) by the Empire Shipbuilding Company at Buffalo, New York, in 1909, the tug was sold Canadian (C. 150334) to Thomas J. Scott, of Sault Ste. Marie, in 1925, and she was renamed (b) T. J. SCOTT. She had a 74-foot steel hull, and the scow T. J. S. NO. 1 also was of steel construction. These vessels were under charter to the Harrison firm during 1945, but the company decided to purchase them the next year. With these new acquisitions, the fate of NORTHERN seemed in doubt, and the company suggested that she was up for sale. John Harrison and Sons Co. Ltd. sold T. J. SCOTT to the Russell Construction Company Ltd., of Toronto, in 1948, after which she was used mostly in the Toronto area. She was scrapped at Toronto during 1958. NORTHERN, however, was not sold off by Harrison immediately after the acqui­ sition of the SCOTT. There is some suggestion that her ownership later passed to the Grey and Bruce Trust Company, which probably held a mortgage on the ship. In any event, she was purchased by Captain George Hindman's Diamond Steamship Company Ltd., and she was renamed (e) CHARLES R. RANDLE SR. in 1951. Charles Randolph Randle, Sr., was a marine engineer on the Great Lakes for many years, and he was employed by the Hindman organization prior to his retirement in 1952. He died in 1967. His son, Capt. Charles Randle, Jr., also was employed by the Hindmans, and was well known in Owen Sound and around the lakes, as he assisted Capt. Wilfred Ogg in the teaching of marine navigation during the winters at the old Y. M. C. A., and then at the O. S. C. V. I. in the days before Georgian College came into being. Captain Charles Randle, Jr., died in 1994. The Diamond Steamship Company Ltd., of Owen Sound, was founded back in 1939 with the Hindman purchase of the 1902-built steamer BROOKTON, (a) TADENAC (02), (b) THE IROQUOIS (20), (c) COLORADO (22), (d) DORNOCH (22), from Mise­ ner's Colonial Steamships Ltd. She was renamed (f) GEORGE HINDMAN (I) in 1940. By 1951, the fleet of the Diamond Steamship Company Ltd. included, in addition to GEORGE HINDMAN, the canal-sized grain carriers BLANCHE HINDMAN (I), (a) S. N. PARENT (16), (b) VEULETTES (21), (c) GLENARM (27), (d) CAMROSE (42), (e) PALMLEAF (49), and the HELEN HINDMAN (I), (a) ROBERT WAL­ LACE (16), (b) TREGASTEL (21), (c) GLENDOWAN (27), (d) CHANDLER (42), (e) ASPENLEAF (49), both "Wolvin"-type steamers built in 1903, the former at Wy­ andotte and the latter at Buffalo. As well, there was the 1890-built HOWARD HINDMAN (I), (a) LA SALLE (I ) (28), (b) EASTRICH (43), and the tugs PAUL EVANS and CHARLES R. RANDLE SR., together with the barge (and former fishe­ ries patrol vessel) VIGILANT. CHARLES R. RANDLE SR. was painted green, with grey (? ) cabins, and her stack was black with a broad red band and a vertically-oriented diamond in white