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3. Marine News - cont'd. The long-anticipated departure of the Staten Island ferry SPIRIT OF AMERICA from Marinette, Wisconsin, took place on August 25th. Built by Marinette Marine, this is the third and final ferry in the series built to replace older ferries on the service between Manhattan and Staten Island. SPIRIT OF AMERICA was downbound in the Huron Cut on the afternoon of the 26th, and she was in the Welland Canal on the 28th. For the last several years, the 1954-built tug SEVEN SISTERS, (a) CHARLIE S. (75), (b) CA­ THY McALLISTER (02), has been owned by Heritage Harbour Marine, of Goderich. Now, however, the 102-foot tug has been sold to Distribution Grand Lacs/St. Laurent Ltee., Trois- Rivieres, to assist in the towing of grain barges. Registered at Quebec, the tug has been renamed (d) DOC MORIN. In addition, the same company has acquired four additional "BIG" series barges which have been moved from Chicago to Trois-Rivieres. They will be used pri­ marily to shuttle grain from Prescott to Trois-Rivieres. The last two storage barges in use at the port of Goderich now have departed that harbour. Goderich Elevators Ltd. 's maritime-class steamer has been sold for overseas scrapping, and the tug EVANS McKEIL pulled her out of Goderich, assisted by PROGRESS, on July 30th. Downbound in the Welland Canal on August 2-3, WILLOWGLEN was taken to Hamilton to be pre­ pared for the overseas tow. WILLOWGLEN last operated in 1992 for P & H Shipping. The other Goderich storage barge, TEAKGLEN, (a) MANTADOC (ii)(02), was towed from Goderich on July 29 by EVANS McKEIL which took her on the short trip to the Government Wharf at Sar­ nia. There she remains, now owned by Wayne Elliott, proprietor of the International Marine Salvage Company of Port Colborne. Mr. Elliott apparently has not yet decided what will be done with TEAKGLEN, but rumours persist that she may see additional service of some undis­ closed sort. The Interlake Steamship Company has let it be known that the self-unloading steamer LEE A. TREGURTHA, her stern section built in 1942, laid down as MOBILOIL and launched as SAMOSET, later U. S. S. CHIWAWA (46), CHIWAWA (61), and rebuilt as WALTER A. STERLING (85), later WIL­ LIAM CLAY FORD (ii)(89), will be repowered over the coming winter. The work will be done by Bay Shipbuilding at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and the vessel will receive two medium-speed, heavy-fuel, Bergen diesel engines, both geared to a single controllable-pitch propeller. This conversion will ensure an extended career for one of the oldest vessels still serving in the U. S. ore trade. After a winter in layup at Montreal, the former ALGOCEN (ii) departed Montreal on July 25 in tow of the tugs ATLANTIC OAK and ANDRE H. Renamed (b) VALGOCEN and registered at Panama, the ship was not destined for the scrapyard. Instead, acquired by Bayshore Recycling, she was taken to Keasbey, New Jersey, where she will be used as a storage barge for sediment continually be dredged from Newark Bay. The sediment then will be taken to Bayshore's re­ cycling facilities. The 'V' added to the motorship's name apparently honours Valerie Monte calvo, president of Bayshore. With the closure of the steam-powered generating plant at Lakeview this spring (albeit its power would have been useful during this extremely hot and dry summer when electricity con­ sumption often exceeded generation capacity), the decision was made to move the orphaned coal at Lakeview to the Nanticoke plant on Lake Erie. For some reason, it was not deemed possible to load the coal into ships at Lakeview and, instead, the coal was trucked to the north side of Pier 51 at Toronto. There, during August, CSL NIAGARA took on two cargoes of the coal, which was loaded by portable conveyors. As of the end of August, another large pile of coal was being assembled on the dock, for movement by ship to Nanticoke. The former American Classic Voyages cruise ships CAPE MAY LIGHT and CAPE COD LIGHT, built in Florida and whose construction helped bankrupt the former Delta Queen Steamboat Company in October of 2001, and which have been lying idle ever since at Jacksonville, Florida, were put up for auction by the United States Maritime Administration on July 26. With an assessed value of $20 million each, neither ship received bids topping the reserve of $12 million. CAPE COD LIGHT has never operated. CAPE MAY LIGHT ran into the lakes in the summer of 2001, and was the next ship downbound behind WINDOC (ii) when the latter was attacked by the prematurely-descending Welland Canal Bridge 11 at Allanburg. When she was being laid up after the bankruptcy, her master was crushed to death by a descending watertight door. MORE MARINE NEWS ON PACE 7