Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 38, no. 2 (November 2005), p. 8

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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. doors open, she soon settled to the bottom. She came to rest on a comparatively even keel, with her deck almost at water level, and her bow but a few feet away from the dock she had just left, and all thirty crew members were able to reach shore safely. Other vessels were scheduled to unload at the Thorold Dock, but they had to be diverted elsewhere while plans were prepared for the refloating of LEADALE. The vessel was finally patched and raised the following week and, on December 22, the tugs GLENEVIS and STORMONT towed her up the canal, placing her in the shipbreaking slip in Ramey's Bend at Humberstone. LEADALE is to be examined there to determine whether she will be repaired or written off as a constructive total loss. To our way of thinking, LEADALE is far too close for comfort to the clutches of Marine Salvage Ltd., and we suspect that she may well be scrapped by that firm should it be decided that repairs will not be undertaken. " Not only was LEADALE's hull damaged in the accident, but her diesel engine was still run­ ning when she sank and considerable muddy canal water thus was sucked into the machinery. Accordingly, the decision was made to dispose of the ship and, on April 23, 1983, she was handed over to Marine Salvage Ltd. ERINDALE, (a) W. F. WHITE (76), which had been idle at Toronto since late in 1981, was refurbished in the spring of 1983 at Port Weller to take LEADALE's place, and she proved to be the last Westdale Shipping Ltd. vessel to operate. The company went out of business in 1984, and both ERINDALE and SILVERDALE were sold for scrapping. The scrapping of LEADALE began in Ramey's Bend at Humberstone, Port Colborne, in May of 1983, when her pilothouse was cut away, and continued slowly over the following months. The last of her remains were not cut up until 1984. Her Canadian registry had been closed on August 18, 1983. * * * Ed. Note: For their assistance in the preparation of this history of the JOHN A. KLING, we extend our most sincere thanks to Bill Breaker, Skip Gillham, Bob Graham (Archivist, The Historical Collections of the Great Lakes), William Lafferty, Capt. Gerry Ouderkirk and Ralph Roberts. In addition, we acknowledge the material that came from the collections of the late John H. Bascom and James M. Kidd, and from the Ivan S. Brookes scrapbooks. * * * * * A parting view of JOHN A. KLING shows her, before lengthening, at Cleveland on October 8, 1936. The photograph comes to us courtesy of Ralph K. Roberts, of Saginaw, Michigan.

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