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Ship of the Month - cont'd. turday, January 5, 1907, and was christened CITY OF CLEVELAND. She was the fourth vessel of that name to be built for the D & C. The first, a wood-hul­ led steamer built in 1857, served the company until sold and converted to a barge in 1866; she was lost in 1868. The second, the first D & C ship with an iron hull and feathering paddle buckets, was built in 1880, and later be­ came (b) CITY OF ALPENA (i) in 1886 and (c) STATE OF OHIO in 1893. She be­ came a barge after a 1924 fire and was lost in 1929. The third was the D & C's first steel-hulled ship, and was built in 1886; she was renamed (b) CITY OF ST. IGNACE in 1906, to make way for the new vessel, and she was sold and renamed (c) KEYSTONE in 1929. She burned in 1932. Construction of the new CITY OF CLEVELAND progressed well, and work was un­ derway, at the foot of Orleans Street, Detroit, on the completion of her su­ perstructure when something occurred that was all too common in passenger steamers of that day. On March 8, 1903, the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company's new Montreal-Quebec nightboat MONTREAL had all her superstructure burned off whilst she was in the final stages of completion at the company's own yard at Sorel. Work on her upperworks had to begin all over again. And in 1906, the magnificent PLYMOUTH of the Fall River Line (the New England Steamship Company), built in 1890, had all of her cabins burned off and had to be completely rebuilt. We quote from the "Amherstburg Echo" of Friday, May 17, 1907: "Fire of mys­ terious origin completely destroyed everything but the steel hull and machinery of the D & C line's new $1, 250, 000 steamer CITY OF CLEVELAND Mon­ day morning [May 13]. The loss is estimated at between $600, 000 and $700, 000. The magnificent craft was nearing completion at the Orleans Street yards of the Detroit Shipbuilding Company and was to have gone into commis­ sion on July 1. As she had not yet been delivered to the navigation company, the loss falls on the shipbuilding concern, which is fully protected. The D & C Co. have arranged to have the steamer rebuilt in time for next season's excursion business. " Much water was poured onto the burning steamer during the fire, which began at 4: 30 a. m., and it was said that the effect of the cold water on the hot steel so hardened the metal of her main deck that it never again could be drilled. The only D & C vessel to be destroyed by fire whilst actually in the compa­ ny's service was the wooden R. N. RICE of 1867, which burned in 1877 at De­ troit (no loss of life) and later became a barge. But the D & C management took some interesting precautions before the 1908 season began and the new CITY OF CLEVELAND could be commissioned. The "Amherstburg Echo" of April 3, 1908, reported: "An order has been issued by the D & C and D & B (Detroit and Buffalo) lines that no boys who smoke cigarettes will be employed on company boats this season. The officials thereby hope to do away with the youthful smoking of 'coffin nails' and all boys applying for positions are forced to have the tips of their fingers examined for the tell tale discoloration. The rule applies both on and off ship. 'Cigarette users are absolutely useless aboard a boat, ' says Manager (Arnold Augustus) Schantz, and Captain Lightbody added an assent. 'They cause fires and can't do the work a clear headed boy can do. We don't want any cigarette fiends working for u s . '" In any event, CITY OF CLEVELAND (iv) was completed in due course and was able to enter service on the Detroit and Cleveland night run in 1908. She ran her trials on April 27, 1908. Enrolled at Detroit under U. S. official number 204080, she was 390. 0 feet in length between perpendiculars (402. 0 feet overall), with a beam of hull of 54. 2 feet and depth of 22. 3 feet. Her extreme beam over the guards was 91 '6". Her tonnage was registered as 4568 Gross and 2403 Net. Her hull had five watertight bulkheads, and the ship had five decks. CITY OF CLEVELAND was powered by a three-cylinder, inclined compound engine built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company in 1907. Its cylinders were of 54, 82 and 82 inches diameter, and the stroke was 96 inches. It produced 6, 000