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5. Marine News - cont'd. In the May issue, we reported that, to replace its Montreal bunkering tanker HORIZON MONTREAL, Shell Canadian Tankers Ltd. was acquiring from Heddle Ma­ rine Service Inc., Hamilton, the 1963-built JOSEE M. (ii), (a) IMPERIAL LA­ CHINE (ii)(02). The sale did indeed take place and in due course the Port Weller-built tanker was towed to Montreal. She was first renamed (c) MUREX, but then became (d) ARCA. According to Transport Canada records, the current owner of the ship is Produits Shell Canada, Montreal. ARCA began her bunker­ ing duties during August. On June 17, the tugs OCEAN DELTA and OCEAN GOLF (the former HELEN M. McAL­ LISTER) towed WINDOC away from her Montreal berth and the tow arrived at Section 25 in Quebec City the following day. WINDOC's owner, Le Groupe Ocean Inc., will be spending more than $1 million to convert the hull into a barge, and reportedly will push it with its own 6, 500 h . p. tug. The barge will be ready for lake and/or coastal service in the 2004 season. After spending the winter on the east coast, the McAsphalt Marine Transpor­ tation Ltd. tug EVERLAST and barge NORMAN McLEOD arrived at Halifax on June 1st. The EVERLAST was suffering from major engine problems for the second time in two seasons, and at last report, she was still in Halifax awaiting an engine replacement. Meanwhile, NORMAN McLEOD was under charter to Irving Oil and was being handled by the tug ATLANTIC HEMLOCK. An unusual visitor to the lakes this summer has been the Northern Transpor­ tation Company Limited, Hay River, N. T., 1974-built, 126-foot tug KEEWATIN which, with two scows in tow, was upbound in the Welland Canal on May 23. The tug and barges went into service hauling limestone from Marblehead, Ohio, to the Southwestern Sales dock at Kingsville, Ontario. Subsequently, Northern Transportation purchased from the Lafarge interests the flat deck barge STONE MERCHANT, which had been lying idle at Windsor. The barge was refitted at Toledo Shipyards and a telescoping stacker added, and KEEWATIN is now pushing that barge. KEEWATIN is a handsome tug, built by Yarrows Ltd. at Esquimalt, British Columbia, and registered at Edmonton, Alberta. Coming back to the lakes during August for work in the Toledo area was a dredge which has been in the lakes in other years under two previous names. Recently renamed, she is COLUMBIA, better known in these parts under the names COLUMBUS and ESPERANCE III. The much in doubt future of the museum ship WILLIAM G. MATHER at Cleveland became much more secure on July 9, when the mayor of Cleveland boarded the MATHER to sign, with the Harbor Heritage Society (owner and operator of the MATHER), a 40-year-lease for the ship to remain at the Ninth Street Pier. The MATHER, built in 1925, spent her entire operating career in the service of the Cleveland-Cliffs Steamship Company, and last operated in 1980. She was taken to Cleveland for museum use in 1988. On May 20, the 1, 000-foot GEORGE A. STINSON went into lay-up at Superior, Wisconsin, and there she has remained ever since, a "victim" of the acquisi­ tion by the United States Steel Corporation of the National Steel Corpora­ tion, for which the STINSON has been operated since her construction in 1978. Owned by Stinson, Inc. (GATX Capital Corp. ), the ship in recent years has been operated by the American Steamship Company, but in dedicated Na­ tional Steel taconite pellet service. It is not known when or if this situa­ tion will be resolved. A new tug/barge combination operating on the lakes this summer has been the McKeil tug TONY MACKAY, (a) POINT CARROLL (01), and tank barge KTC 115, which have been running in the brine trade from Manistee to Amherstburg. The Lake County Historical Society of Two Harbors, Minnesota, hoped that in August it could reopen the 1896-built steam tug EDNA G. to public tours. Last operated in steam in 1981, the tug has been closed to the public for two years for the removal of peeling lead paint. * * * * *