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7. Ship of the Month - cont'd. work was performed at Montreal during the following winter's lay-up. Bridges quite often were a problem. The railroad swing bridge above Lock 2 of the Lachine Canal jammed part way open on April 25, 1949, as GRAINMOTOR was approaching. Despite the captain ordering "Full Astern", the ship rammed the abutment, denting two plates on the port bow and bending some frames. She was sent to Kingston for repairs. Another foul-up occurred on July 26, 1949, when an engineer forgot to turn on the steering power as GRAINMOTOR pulled away from the Imperial Oil fuel dock on the Lachine Canal. More bent frames and plates resulted. GRAINMOTOR spent the winter of 1949-1950 at To­ ronto, on the west side of the slip between C. S. L. Piers 8 and 9 at the foot of Bay Street, along with fleetmate BATTLEFORD. She likely had storage soya beans for the Victory Mills elevator, or barley for the Canada Malting Com­ pany. In 1950 and 1951, GRAINMOTOR was still under the command of Capt. 0. Pregent with Chief Engineer William Lander. By this time, her pilothouse had been enlarged and it now sported five large windows in its face. A minor collision with the Upper Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Compa­ ny's steamer JOHN B. RICHARDS occurred on August 17, 1952, in the Soulanges Canal. The RICHARDS was upbound, and as she passed the downbound GRAINMOTOR, their port bows brushed, pushing the coal-laden motorship into the bank. This resulted in a four-inch rip, which was welded at Kingston later. Another minor accident took place at Cornwall on November 9, 1952, while GRAINMOTOR was upbound with 2, 182 tons of sulphur. Tricky currents caused her to strike the bank forcibly and the damage this time included a leak in the Number Two bilge. Repair at Kingston followed during the winter, at a cost of $11, 361. C. S. L . 's steam canal bulker ELGIN towed the crippled GRAINMOTOR back to Kingston from Iroquois on December 16, 1958, after GRAINMOTOR ran aground at Toussant Island, three miles above the lock, on December 7th. The accident occurred at almost exactly the same spot where another C. S. L. motorship, IROQUOIS, ran into trouble on December 3rd, holing herself and requiring the Pyke Salvage Company tugs and a lighter to release her so that she could re­ turn to Kingston to unload her cargo before entering the drydock for re­ pairs. When the December 16, 1958, accident occurred, GRAINMOTOR was loaded with a winter storage cargo of grain, that she had taken on at the Kingston eleva­ tor, bound for Montreal. She apparently struck a derrick barge being used for dredging in the area near Galop Island before going aground and punching a hole in her No. 1 hold. The Pyke Salvage Company went down with a tug and lighter and removed 90, 000 bushels of her cargo before she could be re­ floated. ELGIN had been sent into lay-up at Kingston, but she was fired up for a last trip down to tow GRAINMOTOR back, as the Pyke tug had to bring its grain-laden barge back to Kingston. GRAINMOTOR went on the Kingston dry­ dock for repairs, and wintered there instead of at Montreal. GRAINMOTOR outlived most of the C. S. L. canallers trading on the Great Lakes. In 1961, after most of the steam canallers had been retired, she was deep­ ened by five feet at the Kingston shipyard. The work was accomplished by cutting the entire length of the ship and inserting a new row of plates. This increased her cargo carrying capacity to 3, 800 tons. Her new tonnage was shown as 2252 Gross and 1351 Net. Strangely enough, her length increased by 7/10 of a foot at this time, but this might have been caused by straigh­ tening the stem or some such other minor alteration. It is odd, indeed, that when deepening GRAINMOTOR, Canada Steamship Lines did not also take the opportunity to lengthen her. In July of 1961, GRAINMOTOR was aground again, on the 12th, this time on a shoal at Glen Walter, about six miles below Cornwall, Ontario, and well out