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9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. cargo of coal when she, too, fell into the trough of the mountainous seas. She was thrown broadside against the Port Austin Reef, beyond Pointe aux Barques, at the tip of the Michigan "thumb", and she was rendered a con­ structive total loss. Salvaged by the Reid Wrecking Company, of Port Huron and Sarnia, she was taken to the shipyard at Collingwood where, after in­ spection on the drydock, she was acquired by James Playfair. She would operate for his Great Lakes Transportation Company Ltd., formed early in 1914, as (b) GLENSHEE until 1926. Under various names and owners, this ship lasted until 1983, when she was scrapped at Thunder Bay. (Her famous "voice" still survives today, and under the same roof where this article is being written. ) Jam es P la y fa i r --A C a p ta in o f in d u s tr y . The other Great Storm wreck that Playfair purchased, and which would join his Great Lakes Transportation Company Ltd. in 1914, was MAJOR, which was acquired from the underwriters on December 15, 1913. She was towed to Mid­ land and repaired, and then was enrolled at Midland under Canadian official number 134263. On the Canadian register, her dimensions were shown as 292. 6 x 41. 0 x 20. 4, and her tonnage as 2149 Gross and 1721 Net. Her engine horse­ power was shown as 137. It is interesting to note that Playfair did not give MAJOR one of his usual "Glen" names; we suspect that this may have been be­ cause Playfair only acquired MAJOR as a stop-gap for his fleet, and did not intend to keep her in service for any length of time. She was, in fact, the only wooden-hulled freighter that Playfair owned at this point in time. She was also somewhat unusual in her colours. She had the white forecastle and cabins that other Playfair steamers sported, as well as the usual crim­ son stack with a black smokeband at the top. However, her hull was painted black, whereas the other ships of the Great Lakes Transportation Company fleet boasted light grey hulls. Playfair did not do any serious reconstruc­ tion of MAJOR when he got her. The storm damage was repaired, but other than that she looked just as she had when Mitchell owned her. MAJOR'S trade also was a bit unusual. She operated for Playfair for six sea­ sons, and it would appear that she spent almost the entire time running crushed quartz from the quarries at Killarney, Ontario, to the Electro- Metallurgical Company's smelter at Welland, Ontario. She unloaded these car­ goes at the dock on the east side of the canal just south of the spot where Bridge 16 eventually would be constructed. This dock later came to be known as Wharf 11. But after six years, MAJOR had outlived her usefulness to Playfair, who had by then much better steel-hulled steamers available to carry such cargoes.