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9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. others, providing for the purchase of a majority of the shares of the Nor­ thern Navigation Co. Ltd., and of the Inland Lines Ltd., to be paid for by the issue of fully paid up R. & O. N. stock". As well, five new directors were added to the R. & O . board, including James Playfair. Some very influ­ ential businessmen had seats on that board and the Furness, Withy interests were much in evidence. Lord Furness of Grantley was the honourary president of the firm. Sir Rodolphe Forget was president. Regardless of the purchase, HAMONIC and her N. N. Co. fleetmates continued to run as before, with no changes in the service or their colours. The new ma­ nagement retained the Northern Navigation Company Limited as a distinct cor­ porate entity; the R. & 0. board knew better than to mess with a successful operation, and it also knew better than to mess with the powerful Grand Trunk, whose connections with the N. N. Co. boats were a large factor in that success. The 1911 season was successful indeed and, in view of the amount of freight available and a late onset of winter, HAMONIC's November 12th depar­ ture from Sarnia was not, as scheduled, the last of the year, and the season was extended to December 6th. The only problem for HAMONIC that year was that, as reported in the September issue of "The Railway and Marine World", she "recently was (dry)docked at Port Arthur to have a propeller blade re­ placed". It had been intended that the 1901-built HURONIC was to have been lengthened during the winter of 1911-1912, presumably to make her comparable with HA­ MONIC in size. However, no doubt as a result of the extension of the 1911 sailing season, there would not have been time to do the work and still have the ship ready for the start of the 1912 season. Accordingly, the work was cancelled and, as it turned out, HURONIC never was lengthened. For the 1912 season, Capt. R. D. Foote remained in command of HAMONIC, and Sam Brisbin continued as her chief engineer. It was announced that spring that the company's ships would not be calling at the Soo that season due to an increase in wharfage rates being charged there. It also was announced that HAMONIC, HURONIC and SARONIC would be fitted with wireless telegraph equipment before the commencement of the summer passenger season, pursuant to a contract between the N. N. Co. and the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of Canada. The Dominion government had erected telegraph stations at Tobermory, Midland and the Soo, which would be running by June 1st, and another at Sar­ nia was to be ready by the end of August, all of them to be operated for the government by the Marconi firm. As well, it was announced during the spring that the N. N. Co. had contracted with the Western Dry Dock and Ship­ building Co., Port Arthur, for the construction of the new ship which the Grand Trunk had required be built. At the 67th annual general meeting of the R. & O ., held at Montreal on Feb­ ruary 19, 1913, there was a spirited election for positions on the board of directors, the honourary president at that time being another Furness man, Sir Trevor Dawson. James Carruthers was elected president, while James Play­ fair and W. Wainwright were vice-presidents. Playfair also was appointed to the position of managing director, and continued as president of Northern Navigation. At the meeting, it was announced that the R. & 0. had completed the purchase of the shares of a number of the firms in which it had acquired controlling interest, including the Northern Navigation Company. When HAMONIC began her 1913 season, Capt. R. D. Foote was again in command, but taking over as chief engineer was James Wilson. He moved over from the company's freighter DORIC to replace Sam Brisbin, who was busy supervising the installation of the machinery in the new steamer which was launched on June 2nd and which was christened NORONIC. But 1913 was to be a year of even more corporate changes as Carruthers, Playfair, the Furness interests, and others sought to create, through fur­ ther mergers and acquisitions, a corporate entity even larger than the R. & O . At a special meeting of R. & O . shareholders held on June 19, 1913, ra­ tification was given to an agreement of sale of the company's assets and un-