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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 10. to be lifted up by hand when we wanted to proceed, as we had no power on the deck whatever other than "Armstrong's patent", which is common language among sailors. "'On May 7 (this is a misprint, the date was May 2 -Ed. ), we arrived at Montreal. We had been at sea 26 days and had travelled about 3, 000 miles. We have all spent some hectic days at sea, but I think none of the crew will forget that trip. '" On her arrival in Canada, JOHN GEORGE was placed on the Canadian register (C. 162235) and she was shown as 130. 2 x 20. 1 x 7. 8, 243 Gross and 80 Net, with a horsepower of 250. Registered at Toronto, she soon (but not immedia­ tely) was renamed (b) BRITAMETTE, that name reflecting the name of the Bri­ tish American Oil Company, but with the "ette" suffix acknowledging her small size. After running on the Ottawa River during the 1932 season, she was laid up in the Keating Channel at Toronto for the winter of 1932-1933. Over that winter, the Toronto Dry Dock Company installed new. larger and more suitable deckhouses on the after end of the little tanker. The main ca­ bin on the quarterdeck was enlarged and shelter down its sides was provided by an overhang of the boat deck. An enclosed pilothouse, with three windows in its front and somewhat overhanging the cabin below, was added on the boat deck, and a small texas house, to accommodate the master, was fitted imme­ diately abaft the pilothouse. The lifeboats were moved from the after end of the boat deck to either side, where radial davits were fitted, and a short pipe mast was stepped just ahead of the smokestack. The Ottawa River service out of Montreal lasted for a number of years, but eventually came to an end, not only because of low water conditions in the Ottawa, but also because of increasing competition from trucks as the roads were improved. As a result, BRITAMETTE was transferred to service supplying the various ports along the north shore of Lake Ontario, a trade that the little tanker continued for a number of years. In 1946, the British American 01 Company sold the four canal-sized steamers and also BRITAMETTE to Gayport Shipping Limited, Toronto, which chartered them back to B-A. There was no change in their operation with the ownership change. Skip Gillham recalls a day back about 1949 when he and his father were wat­ ching something out on the lake. They thought it was two small boats, very close together, in some rough weather off the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. They did a waterfront tour and then went back to the Western Gap, where they found BRITAMETTE coming in the piers. She was loaded so low that, with the waves, she had looked from a distance like two separate boats on the lake. On the other hand, when she was running light, she sat down on her stern and put her bow high in the air, just like an old wooden "rabbit". By the beginning of the 1950s, however, BRITAMETTE was found to be too small for the Lake Ontario trade, and B-A chartered other tonnage to handle the business. BRITAMETTE spent the 1950 and 1951 seasons laid up at Toronto. On February 23, 1952, she was fitted out and sailed for Clarkson, making seve­ ral trips before returning to lay-up at Toronto. Presumably in an effort to reduce the cost of wharfage, BRITAMETTE was towed from Toronto to Muir's Pond at Port Dalhousie, where she was virtually abandoned, no longer of any use to British American Oil or to Gayport Shipping. Over the years that she lay close to the Port Dalhousie drydock, she fell into a sorry state of disrepair and was badly vandalized. During 1956, BRITAMETTE was acquired by the Husky Oil & Refining Co. Ltd., of Fort William, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta, which intended to convert the vessel into a bunkering ship for use at Fort William and Port Arthur. One Saturday afternoon in August of that year, your future Editor was obli­ ged to attend (albeit unwillingly) with his parents at the wedding of a mem­ ber of a family that lived two doors from us along the Lakeshore at Ward's Island. Whilst the reception was underway, into sight on the lake hove the Toronto Dry Dock Company's steam tug J. C. STEWART towing BRITAMETTE bound