The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

13. Ship of the Month - cont'd. and that if he wished to make a defence and secure counsel, the court would adjourn, but he elected to leave the case in its hands. "The court found that the master was in default and stated that he gave his evidence in a straightforward and honest manner. It did not consider the accident (to have been) due to an error in judgment or careless behavior, but to an omission to exercise the necessary caution. Owing to his youth, clean record and straightforward evidence, the court exercised leniency and suspended his certificate, 6939, for two months from July 21 to Sept. 20. The second officer, Andrew Allan, was exonerated, but cautioned that his responsibilities and duties demand more than to call the master and pace the bridge. " No doubt as a result of the accident and the subsequent decision of the Wreck Commissioner's enquiry to lift Capt. Wing's ticket, command of HAMONIC was given to Capt. H. J. Aitken, who moved over from HURONIC. Chief McLeod remained in charge of the engineroom. Both were appointed to the ship again in the spring of 1921, and yet again in 1922. During the summer of 1922, however, Capt. A. M. Wright retired from the NORONIC, as a result of which Capt. Aitken was promoted to the flagship from HAMONIC. Capt. W. Montgomery then was promoted from HURONIC to HAMONIC. Capt. F. G. Moles was moved up from the RAPIDS KING to HURONIC, but beginning in 1923 and continuing for a number of years, Capt. Wright returned from "retirement" to command HURONIC. On September 10, 1922, HAMONIC was involved in a collision on the Kaministi­ quia River at Fort William with the wooden-hulled, 281-foot freighter ROBERT L. FRYER (ii) (C. 134019). The latter was built in 1888 by F. W. Wheeler & Company at West Bay City, Michigan (U. S. 110776) and was owned by Gratwick, Smith and Fryer lumber interests of Tonawanda, New York, and operated by Mitchell & Company, Cleveland, until she was badly damaged in a 1914 fire at Marine City, Michigan. Sold to the Henderson Transfer & Lighterage Company Limited, of Fort William, in 1915, she was rebuilt and then used as a grain transfer ship at the Canadian Lakehead. In the 1922 collision, HAMONIC dama­ ged several plates above the waterline and her eastbound sailing was de­ layed for several hours while the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company put the necessary repairs in hand. Northern Navigation subsequently libelled the Henderson interests for $6, 000 in damages. HAMONIC spent the following winter at Collingwood, no doubt receiving permanent repairs to the collision damage. In its June 1923 issue, "Canadian Railway and Marine World" reported that the N. N. Co.'s claim "was dismissed by the Exchequer Court of Canada, Toronto Admiralty Division, at Port Arthur, May 12, and the counter-claim (by Hen­ derson Transfer) was withdrawn. Mr. Justice Hodgins, in giving judgment, stated that he took into consideration the age and disability of the s. s. ROBERT L. FRYER, as compared with the s. s. HAMONIC which had, by her more modern equipment and greater power, better facilities to keep clear of the ROBERT L. FRYER. Both ships had disregarded certain rules of the road, nei­ ther having signalled the other its intention when sighting, and this had, to a certain extent, contributed to the accident. " By the early 1920s, both HAMONIC and HURONIC had been given enclosed upper pilothouses, as was the fashion of the day in the years following World War One; it no longer was considered necessary for navigation officers to stand outside on an open bridge in all sorts of weather conditions. Although there were a number of notable holdouts to this change, including the C. P. R. and the Niagara Navigation boats, most operators gave their ships enclosed brid­ ges. HAMONIC was given a particularly handsome upper house, which was con­ structed above the old pilothouse and it had the same general "turret" shape. The new house had eleven large windows in its curved face, and a door opened from each side onto the flying bridgewings. (Steps led down from the wings onto the shade deck. ) A sunvisor was placed over the pilothouse windows (a more prominent visor later being positioned over the centre window), while a framed canvas nameboard, with a dark blue background and gold let­