Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 39, no. 1 (November 2006), p. 9

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9. Marine News - cont'd. For a number of years, the tug GEORGIAN STORM, formerly the RENE SIMARD da­ ting from 1931, has been lying derelict at the Penetanguishene town dock, under arrest by the town for non-payment of dockage fees. Her last recorded owner was Raymond Cote, of Penetang. On September 23, she was towed from the town dock and beached nearby, where scrapping operations have proceeded quickly. And speaking of Penetang, two interesting pleasure vessels have been tied up there this past summer. One is STILL WATCH (the former C. C. G. S. VILLE MARIE) and the other is the former tug PRESCOTONT. Both were "living" at Toronto before heading to Penetang. Once again, MATHILDA DESGAGNES (the former C. S. L. package freighter ESKIMO) has won a reprieve from being sold out of the Desgagnes fleet. In late Sep­ tember, she was fitted out and sent on an Arctic supply run to replace CA­ MILLA DESGAGNES which on September 7 had suffered a failure of her main en­ gine whilst in the Arctic. The latter vessel was towed by a coast guard vessel back to Inlet Milne, Baffin Island, and the tug OCEAN FOXTROT was later dispatched to fetch the CAMILLA, as temporary engine repairs were not suc­ cessful. There is no word on when or if MATHILDA will be sold after her re­ turn from the Arctic. Observers have been awaiting anxiously the return of commercial navigation to Wallaceburg, Ontario. Norlake Transportation has been intending to use the pusher tug RADIUM YELLOWKNIFE to take barges loaded with corn in to Wal­ laceburg, returning outbound with Ontario wheat. An unloading device was constructed on the Bruinsma Dock at Wallaceburg to receive the corn. How­ ever, when the service was set to begin near the end of October, repairs to bridge pilings prevented full passage to Wallaceburg, and the tug took the first of the loaded barges to Sarnia, instead. At the time of this writing, it is not known when Wallaceburg service will commence. The corn was loaded at Toledo. As of the end of October, the 1983-built "ocean-laker" LADY HAMILTON was in­ bound through the Seaway for the lakes. This is the vessel that sailed as SASKATCHEWAN PIONEER until 1995. A report has indicated that, on November 5, a vessel named VOYAGEUR PIONEER is due at Thunder Bay to load grain. Obser­ vers have speculated that LADY HAMILTON indeed (as rumoured earlier) has been acquired by Voyageur Marine Transport Inc. of Ridgeville, Ontario, and that a new name for her will recall her original name and a renewed interest in the ship by the James Richardson & Sons grain dealers. LADY HAMILTON most recently has been owned by Seven Seas Carriers AS, of Bergen, Norway. There have been several groundings in the Seaway this year, but the most serious of them involved the 1983-built salty TORO, owned by Seastar Naviga­ tion Co. Ltd., of Athens, Greece, and chartered to Canadian Forest Naviga­ tion Ltd. On the evening of September 5, whilst downbound with grain, TORO ran on Cornwall Island, downriver from Snell Lock. Efforts to free the ship were unsuccessful and a salvage contract was let to a consortium of McKeil Marine and Tritan Salvage. Lightering began on September 12 and TORO was refloated on the 18th. TORO reached Montreal on the 20th and after inspec­ tion went to the Verreault shipyard at Les Mechins. Repairs took until Octo­ ber 27, when TORO resumed her voyage to Progreso, Mexico. Returning to service in late September after her re-engining at Sturgeon Bay was the Interlake (Lakes Shipping Co. Inc. ) ore carrier LEE A. TREGURTHA. Parts of the 826-foot LEE date back to her construction as a tanker in 1942. Bay Shipbuilding converted her from steam to diesel propulsion. Imperial Oil Limited has disposed of its last tanker, the 1970-built Halifax bunkering ship IMPERIAL DARTMOUTH, a product of Collingwood Shipyards. She was sold early in August to Northern Transportation Co. Ltd., of Hay River, NWT, was repainted in her new owner's green hull, and was renamed (b) NT DARTMOUTH. The tanker is still operating in the Halifax bunkering service and apparently will continue to do so under her new ownership. * * * * *

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