Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 34, no. 2 (November 2001), p. 5

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5. Marine News - cont'd . Andersons elevator for delivery to Quebec, but she became stuck in the ri­ ver's muddy bottom as she was departing. It was not until the morning of October 20th that she was pulled free after some 1, 500 tons of cargo had been off-loaded into barges and taken back to the elevator. A flotilla of tugs worked on the grounded vessel, including Great Lakes Towing's ILLINOIS, LOUISIANA, MONTANA, TRITON and WYOMING, Gaelic Tug Boat Company's SUSAN HOEY and ROGER STAHL, and Purvis Marine's ATLANTIC CEDAR. It was ironic that another CSL ship, the FRONTENAC, was trapped upriver while NANTICOKE was aground. NANTICOKE reloaded the lightered cargo at the elevator during the evening of the 20th, and then departed. However, as she was passing through the Norfolk Southern south railroad bridge (just below the elevator), assisted by two G-tugs, she struck the bridge abutment, causing damage to both bridge and ship (there had been no damage to NANTICOKE in the groun­ ding). After undergoing Coast Guard inspection, NANTICOKE was able to pro­ ceed on her way early on O c t o b e r 21st. * * * The sale of ARCADIA, ordered by the Federal Court of Canada to help satisfy claims of the creditors of the defunct cruise service begun in mid-June and ended in early July, will take place at Montreal, where the vessel is under arrest. The sale will be accomplished by means of a sealed-bid auction. We wonder whether anyone will be interested in buying the 1968-built vessel in a time when world conditions have adversely affected the cruise trade. * * * At last report, the former Bob-Lo ferry steamer STE. CLAIRE was still in the drydock at Toledo Shiprepair, as adverse weather conditions prevented her removal to the Hocking Valley dock where work on restoring her superstruc­ ture will proceed over the next year. Meanwhile, an October 21 report printed in the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" has identified the new owner of STE. CLAIRE as Diane Evon, a 37-year-old Cleveland garden centre operator who has memo­ ries of riding on STE. CLAIRE when she was a child. She reportedly paid about $100, 000 for the steamer but she is not entirely sure to what static use the boat will be put, or where she will be moored. * * * A major fire occurred on October 26th at the old Saskatchewan Pool 8 eleva­ tor site along the bank of the Kaministiquia River. The Riverside Grain Ter­ minal, most recently used for the processing of starch and gluten, but va­ cant since 2000, was quickly destroyed in the late afternoon blaze, and a second building at the site also caught fire. Although minor fire damage did occur to the pilings of the bascule bridge located just downstream from the terminal (firefighters soon put that out), the high winds threatened to spread the fire to the nearby elevator or to the Petro Can facility across the river; fortunately, the fire reached neither. * * * As far as we know, the drillboat LOUIS J. GOULET, the former TELESIS and CONISCLIFFE HALL (II), has not yet left the lakes, but the vessel reportedly is now owned by Bahamas Oil, and is to drill a well in the Bahama Bank north of Freeport in the Bahamas. * * * IMC Global has sold its Sifto salt business for some $640 million to Apollo Management, of New York. The sale includes the famed salt mine at Goderich, Ontario, but the sale is not expected to result in any major changes at that facility. Meanwhile, on October 30th, SAGINAW was at the Canadian Soo, loading the first ever cargo of salt taken out of that port. The situation arises out of a change in firms contracted to provide winter road service in the area. Loaded at the export (SEWELL AVERY) dock, the cargo was expected to be taken to a North Channel port for use there. At least one more load was anticipated. * * * * *

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