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7. Ship of the Month - cont'd. ler. With the repowering, the old smokestack was removed and a rather too-short "coffee pot" stack took its place. As well, a new and much larger pilothouse was fitted. It had wing bridges, and eleven windows in its curved front, the centre three windows being larger than all the rest. The reconstruction changed the ship's tonnage to 6829 Gross and 5413 Net. The KLING ran her trials April 21-23, 1966, and entered service on the 24th. She was at the shipyard at South Chicago for unspecified work on June 1st and 2nd, and returned June 26-July 5 for her regular survey and inspection. In 1969, the Reiss Steamship Company together with two related ship-owning companies, and all their vessels, were sold to Boland & Cornelius Inc., of Buffalo, New York. The United States Department of Justice, however, took exception to the sale in view of its supposed effects on lake shipping competition. To resolve the government's issues, BoCo (which then operated the American Steamship Company) agreed to divest itself of many of the former Reiss ships, keeping only a few of the self-unloaders, including the KLING. Accordingly, the KLING was given the usual BoCo stack design, which was black with a silver band and two red bands. The Reiss Steamship Company remained the name of the registered owner of the KLING. On April 23, 1980, the KLING suffered a small engineroom fire whilst off Sherwood Point out from Sturgeon Bay in the Bay of Green Bay. She went back to the yard of the Bay Shipbuil­ ding Company for repairs. But 1980 was to be an eventful year for the KLING. Rumours were rampant that it would be her last year of service, and she spent part of the early autumn in lay-up. She was, however, reactivated and ran the rest of the season operating to the account of Westdale Shipping Ltd., for which she carried much salt including two trips down to Hamilton. The KLING's cargo capacity was much needed as Westdale had retired its BROOK­ DALE (ii) that summer as a result of her condition and the fact that she had lost her un­ loading boom over the side in a weather-related incident on July 17th at Ojibway, Ontario. On December 15, 1980, the KLING, much to the surprise of observers, arrived at Toronto light ship and was laid up for the winter on the south side of the Ship Channel, just out­ side the Cherry Street bridge. Early in 1981, ownership of the vessel was transferred to Dale Transports Ltd., of Mississauga, Ontario (Westdale Shipping Ltd., managers), and she was registered as (b) LEADALE (ii) at Toronto under Canadian official number 800249. Her tonnage on the Canadian register was shown as 8332 Gross and 5750 Net. Her appearance remained the same, except that her stack was black with a broad red band and a large white letter 'D '. Most Westdale-managed ships had a black forecastle with white rail, but LEADALE retained her full white forecastle throughout her Dale ownership. Apparently, it originally had been intended by Westdale Shipping management to give the ship the name PINEDALE (ii), but that proved impossible because the previous PINEDALE (i), (a) E. D. CARTER (16), (b) WILLIAM T. ROBERTS (32), (c) DOW CHEMICAL (i)(39), (d) NORMAN J. KOPMEIER (61), although then being scrapped at Hamilton, still was on the Canadian regis­ ter. Accordingly, for the former KLING, the company reactivated the name of another of the fleet's veteran self-unloaders, LEADALE (i), which had been sent overseas for scrapping in 1979. LEADALE (ii) operated successfully for Westdale through the 1981 season, apart for one in­ cident. The ship grounded in the St. Lawrence Seaway, at the west end of the South Shore Canal on Lac St. Louis, on August 1, 1981. About 2, 400 tons of salt were lightered off her and she was freed by five tugs on August 4, 1981. Subsequent inspection revealed slight propeller and bow thruster damage and a few bottom plates were scored. However, 1982 proved to be a hard year for the company. Only LEADALE and SILVERDALE (the former GLENEAGLES of 1925) operated that year while ERINDALE and NORDALE remained idle at Toronto, and NORDALE would never run again. The end of the 1982 navigation season would al­ so prove to be the undoing of LEADALE, in a most unexpected fashion. We quote from the January 1983 issue of "Scanner". "During the evening of December 7, the Westdale Shipping Ltd. self-unloading motorship LEA­ DALE (ii) was preparing to leave the Moore-McCleary Thorold dock in the Welland Canal where she had unloaded a cargo of salt. She cast lines and attempted to back out of the dock area into the main channel of the canal. Unfortunately, LEADALE managed to run foul of a con­ crete dolphin while reversing, and she punched a hole, allegedly some eight feet by nine and one-half feet, in her portside stern. She began to take on water and, with her tunnel