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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 6. vertically-oriented diamond which contained the letters 'A. C. S. S. L . ' in va­ rying format (not all ships had the letters aligned in the same manner). Later, the stacks became black with a red diamond on which the intertwined letters 'A' and 'C ' appeared in white, and eventually the stacks became black with a broad red band severed in thirds by a white band. If this des­ cription of the company's livery seems rather vague, it is because the stack colours seem to have varied rather broadly from ship to ship during the early years of the Algoma Central fleet. These may have been four staunch little ships, but in hindsight one must question their suitability for lake service. When running loaded, they had very little freeboard, especially in the area of the forward well-deck, and they appear to have been less suited for operation in the short, choppy wa­ ves of lake storms than were steamers built especially for lake trade. In fact, of the four ships, only one survived her lake service, the other three falling victims to the savagery of Lake Superior's storms. We will look at the histories of the four ships in inverse order to the length of their lake operation. * * * MONKSHAVEN (Br. 86632) was a steel-hulled bulk carrier built in 1882 as Hull 183 of the yard of J. Readhead & Company at South Shields, England. She mea­ sured 249. 0 feet in length between perpendiculars, 36. 0 feet in the beam, and 17. 5 feet in depth, with tonnage of 1415 Gross and 1127 Net, and a cargo capacity of 2, 200 tons. She was powered by a compound steam engine, with cylinders of 29 3/8 and 54 inches bore, and a stroke of 36 inches, and steam was provided by one Scotch boiler, of which we have no details. Engine and boiler both, reportedly, were built by the shipyard. MONKSHAVEN was constructed to the order of R. Harrowing, of Whitby, England, and it was at this port that the vessel first was registered. She was named for the village in County Cork, Ireland, where Mr. Harrowing was born. She was sold in 1898 to Donald & Taylor, of Glasgow, Scotland, and that port then became her port of registry. In 1900, the Algoma Central Steamship Line acquired MONKSHAVEN, and she was brought to the Great Lakes, although she remained under British registry and never was re-registered in Canada. It is said that she was sent back to salt water during the winter of 1900-1901, but she returned the next spring and thereafter remained in the lakes, as far as we know. MONKSHAVEN operated successfully for a few seasons but it was not long until she fell victim to Lake Superior's "Gales of November". In fact, it was one of the most famous of lake storms that claimed the MONKSHAVEN, the same 1905 storm that wrecked the MATAAFA at the Duluth harbour entrance and, amongst others, threw eight more U. S. Steel Corp. freighters onto the rocky shores of Lake Superior. (In addition to MATAAFA, other "tinstack" victims were the steamers CRESCENT CITY, WILLIAM EDENBORN, LAFAYETTE, WILLIAM E . COREY and CO RALIA, and the barges MADEIRA, MANILA and MAIA. Of these, LAFAYETTE and MA­ DEIRA were total losses; the others, including MATAAFA, were salvaged. ) MONKSHAVEN appears to have been the first of the storm's victims and, at the time, she was bound from Sault Ste. Marie to Fort William with a cargo of steel rails. She was nearing the end of her voyage when she came to grief during the night of November 27-28, 1905. Some reports have stated that she struck Angus Island, but in fact MONKSHAVEN grounded by the stern on the rocks of Pie Island, which is seven miles long and four miles wide, and lies on the west side of the entrance to Thunder Bay. No lives were lost, as MONKSHAVEN's crew was taken off safely and managed to reach the Canadian Lakehead. MONKSHAVEN remained on the rocks of Pie Island throughout the winter, and during the summer of 1906, the Reid Wrecking Company, of Sarnia and Port Hu­