5. Ship of the Month -cont'd. The July 1925 issue of C. R. &M. W. reported that the ship had been launched by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. (she was their Hull 1271) at Walls end-on-Tyne on Thursday, June 11. She was christened GLENLEDI by Mrs. Hey- worth, niece of James Playfair, president of the Great Lakes Transportation Company. The report stated that the ship was expected to reach Montreal early in August. We should add that she ran her trials on July 31, 1925, and was registered at Midland under Canadian official number 148133. From whence came the name GLENLEDI? In his writings on the Playfair fleets in Volume Four of The Fleet Histories Series, John Greenwood stated that the name was taken from Le Diamant, a port on the Caribbean island of Martinique, but as far as we are concerned, that is total bilge! Why would James Playfair vary from his normal practice of naming his ships in honour of places in Scotland, from whence his family came? It is our firm belief that GLENLEDI was named for Ben Ledi, a 2, 873-foot mountain in the Perth shire region of central Scotland. Ben Ledi is situated between Loch Lubnaig and Loch Vennachar, both of which are noted for their scenic beauty. There does not appear to be an actual Glenledi, but Playfair occasionally took parts of names from other Scottish places and added his traditional "Glen" prefix to form the name for a ship, so we have absolutely no doubt that Ben Ledi was the origin of the name. The November 1925 issue of "Canadian Railway and Marine World" reported: "The company's package freight s. s. GLENLEDI... has been cut in two by Collingwood Shipbuilding Co. at Collingwood, Ont., and lengthened by the in sertion of 144 ft. of the midship section which was fabricated in England and stored on board for insertion in the ship after her arrival on the Great Lakes. She is now 379 ft. long [b. p. ]. "She was placed in the drydock at Collingwood on Aug. 31, and cutting opera tions commenced the next day. The pulling apart was done on Sept. 9 by steam winches and wire rope tackles secured to her stem. Before pulling was com menced, hydraulic jacks were used to move the forward portion 1 in., thus making sure that nothing was binding. Ordinary launching ways were used, these being arranged and secured on the bottom of the dock to ensure the true alignment of forward and after portions of the ship when pulled apart. The erection of steel was commenced on Sept. 10. In addition to steel work, cargo hoisting gear, piping, electric wiring, steering gear and telegraph leads, etc., were installed in the new portion and connected. The ship was delivered complete on Oct. 15, and arrived at Fort William, Oct. 22, to load with grain. " GLENLEDI as lengthened was 379. 1 feet in length between perpendiculars (390. 5 feet overall), 44. 2 feet in the beam and 23. 9 feet in depth, and her tonnage was registered as 3571 Gross and 2172 Net. (Her tonnage was to re main exactly the same for her entire life. ) She had a fully-topgallant fore castle which was 48 feet long, and a flush quarterdeck. She had three cargo holds to which access was gained via ten hatches set on 24-foot centres and equipped with patent (telescoping) covers. There also were four gangways set into each side of the ship, which gave direct access to the 'tween deck. She was (partially as reported by "Canadian Railway and Marine World") powered by a triple expansion steam engine with cylinders of 22 1/2, 37 and 62 inches diameter, and a stroke of 42 inches. Steam at 190 p. s. i. was provided by two single-ended, coal-fired Scotch boilers which measured 15'6" in dia meter and 11'6" in length, and had a total grate surface of 111 square feet and heating surface of 5, 380 square feet. The engine and boilers were built for the vessel by the North Eastern Marine Engineering Company Ltd., of New castle. GLENLEDI was an extremely handsome steamer and, indeed, was always consi dered one of the prettiest on the lakes. As for the shape of her hull, it could not be better described than C. H. J. Snider did in his Schooner Days