The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. of the shipping channel. Again she was recovered and returned to service. When she finally was laid up at Kingston at the end of the 1964 season, she was the last pre-war bulk canaller to be operated by C. S. L. She lay idle during the 1965 season and on June 11, 1966, she was sold to Bahamas Ship­ owners Ltd. and soon transferred to Bahamas Package Carriers Ltd. (the same firm which bought C. S. L . 's BATTLEFORD) for operation by the Gold Line. GRAINMOTOR underwent an extensive refit at Kingston and emerged sporting a grey hull and a white stack with a red band and a black top. Her first trip was up to Port Colborne, where she loaded a cargo of flour at the Maple Leaf Mills elevator on June 29th. She then headed downbound and cleared the Sea­ way shortly thereafter, still bearing her original name. The efforts to maintain GRAINMOTOR as a profitable carrier on salt water were not overly successful. She was beset by numerous management and naviga­ tional problems that left her idle at anchor more often than at sea. Soon after entering salt water service, the vessel was renamed (b) BULK GOLD. She sailed in the West Indies cement trade as well as in the general cargo service between Miami, Florida, and Nassau. On January 10, 1968, she was laid up at anchor at Montagu Bay in the Bahamas, and was listed for sale with an asking price of $245, 000. There were no takers and she apparently remained at anchor there until January of 1971. BULK GOLD finally was sold to Michael Zapatos, of Miami, no doubt for sub­ stantially less than the asking price, since three years at anchor had taken their toll and had left the ship in deteriorating condition. The tug DIANE towed the old canaller to Charleston, South Carolina, in late January / ear­ ly February of 1971, her destination being the Detyens Shipyard, where she was to undergo an undisclosed "conversion". The contract never was accepted, however, and the crewless BULK GOLD went to anchor once more, this time in Charleston harbour. She later was berthed at the Sammons Dredging Company salvage yard during the ensuing dispute over the payment of the towing bill. BULK GOLD reappeared in the news during December of 1971, at which time she was spotted at Miami Beach, presumably having arrived under tow. Her owner was listed as the Antilles Lines Ltd. (again, a parallel with the other C. S. L. canaller BATTLEFORD, which had become [c] REAL GOLD after her depar­ ture from the lakes), and they financed a complete refit to return the ship to service, a refit reportedly costing as much as $100, 000. It appeared that the veteran laker finally was ready to resume operation, but it was not to last for long. Upon her arrival at Tampa, Florida, in March of 1972, BULK GOLD was loaded with approximately 3, 500 tons of phosphate, after which she set out for Houston, Texas. After taking on a cargo of potash, apparently at Houston, she sailed once more, only to break down in the Gulf of Mexico. She was tow­ ed to New Orleans, where the cargo was lightered and the mechanical problems repaired. Her activities in the ensuing weeks are vague. It is known that she broke down again near the entrance to Tampa Bay and was towed into that port in July of 1972 after receiving damage during Hurricane Agnes. Repairs were again attempted but there was difficulty in obtaining proper parts, and once more she went to anchorage. Her owner had planned to operate BULK GOLD to Colombia and Ecuador carrying phosphate and potash, and when she went to anchor she was carrying a phos­ phate cargo worth about $42, 000. There were plans to tow her to Ecuador in the autumn of 1972, but these evaporated when the company doing her refit filed suit for non-payment, and the ship was seized until the debt could be paid. She remained at Tampa with Capt. O . P. Criollo and a small crew aboard with the owners believed to be the Cia. Frutena Chikena Ecuadoriana, of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Then, late in 1972, her anchorage was declared off-limits by the United States Coast Guard and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The ship was re-