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9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. "The vessel has a 35 degree list, and when she ran ashore water poured over her deck and into the boiler and engine rooms, dousing the fires and extin­ guishing her electric lights. All her crew, with the exception of a watch­ man, were removed yesterday. The NOVADOC was admittedly in a serious plight. She had listed badly after striking the shoal... yesterday, and the Sin-Mac tugs were called from Kingston. Early today, her decks were just barely above the surface of the water, but it is believed she is now resting firmly on hard rock and can sink no further. Her cargo of flour, consigned to Montreal, is believed a total loss. "'I was below when we struck, ' declared Capt. W. Beatty, Toronto, master of the NOVADOC. 'The crash threw everything into a heap and for a while we didn't know whether it was all over or not. I don't know why we grounded. When I came up she was already listing badly. It was too dark to see and what with this storm it was a long time before we knew there was nothing we could do by staying aboard. The decks on the starboard side were about even with the water when we put off in a lifeboat. It was still blowing hard. There was no panic; the crew were orderly and efficient. There was nothing we could do to save the ship. We stayed aboard until we were sure. ' The NO­ VADOC was [still] lying pretty much as the crew left her, he said. 'There is 10 feet of water off her port side, about 25 off the stern and 65 feet under the starboard. I don't think she will slip any further - seems to have set­ tled. The gash in the port bow is pretty deep. '" December 6 , 1932: "Marine Season Practically Ended. Steamers GEORGIAN aground in Lake Superior, and NOVADOC still stuck and may have to spend the winter where they are. Their crews have been paid off. " Regarding the steamer GEOR­ GIAN, mentioned in this dispatch, she had been driven ashore at Grand Island near Munising on Lake Superior on November 28th. Captain Dalton Hudson was forced to abandon his ship and she was salvaged the following year. The "Kingston Whig-Standard" continued to chronicle the attempts to rescue NOVADOC from her precarious position. December 6, 1932: "NOVADOC lightened of Part of Cargo. The NOVADOC... which is hard aground on a shoal 400 feet off the shore near Alexandria Bay, was yesterday lightered of her flour car­ go when two large loads of flour were taken to the mainland. The cargo was removed from the grounded vessel by the tugs of the Sin-Mac Line of Kingston and today the barge [GEORGE T . ] DAVIE, of the Pyke Salvage Company also of Kingston, is lightering the NOVADOC. Besides the Sin-Mac tugs and barges, the Pyke tug SALVAGE PRINCE and barge DAVIE are attempting to release the NOVADOC from the shoal. The freighter is rapidly filling with water and this morning the SALVAGE QUEEN was rushing to the grounded boat with additional pumps. The NOVADOC has much water in her bow and has a list to port [sic - it was to starboard] of forty degrees. " The paper on December 8 noted that about half the 2, 300-ton flour cargo had been removed from NOVADOC, and that "The Pyke Salvage Company's tugs SALVAGE PRINCE and SALVAGE QUEEN and the barge DAVIE together with the Sin-Mac tugs RIVAL, DONNELLY and JOHNSON and the barges LONDONDERRY and MAMIE are attemp­ ting to release the NOVADOC". December 9, 1932: "Injured while working on the lightering of the stranded steamer NOVADOC, opposite Alexandria Bay, William Griffin, aged 44, of that place, is a patient at Mercy Hospital, Watertown, suffering from a fracture of the right thigh bone. Griffin, one of a gang of 15 Alexandria Bay men re­ cruited by the Pyke Salvage Company, of Kingston, to remove flour from the hold of the NOVADOC, was injured when a bag of flour fell as it was being hoisted to the deck of the vessel and struck him as he stood in the hold. " Saturday, December 10, 1932: "Stranded Boat Now Off Reef. NOVADOC Will Be Brought to the Kingston Shipbuilding Yard. The... NOVADOC was floated yes­ terday afternoon after being aground on the Frontenac Shoal near Alexandria Bay for nearly a week. The NOVADOC will be brought to the drydock at the Kingston Shipbuilding Company's yard either today or tomorrow it is learned.