The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. A Brookes clipping from the "Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin" of April 17, 1952, noted: "Several vessels have broken out of the mush ice that delayed them near Sault Ste. Marie and five are reported on their way. They include the tanker IMPERIAL REDWATER, carrying the season's first cargo of crude oil from the Lakehead, the package freighter COLLINGWOOD and the tanker IMPERIAL SARNIA. " The REDWATER's largest load of the 1952 season was one of 126, 618 barrels, well in excess of her intended capacity. She recorded a season high of 106 passages through the Soo Locks that year. The "Toronto Telegram" of March 17, 1953, reported that the LEDUC, REDWATER and WOODBEND were expected to be ready to sail by the end of March. That season, the REDWATER sailed 49, 065 miles and she unloaded her last cargo at Sarnia on November 5, 1953. Her usefulness to Imperial Oil, together with that of her sisterships, had come to an end as a result of the completion of the Interprovincial pipeline through to Sarnia. Her career as a tanker was short, but without her and her sisters, Imperial would not have been able to carry any­ where near as much crude oil as it needed. In a "Telegram" report dated May 19, 1953, it was stated that two of the three Imperial sister tankers would be converted into bulk carriers. It was said that the low bid for the conversions ($1, 272, 250 per ship) was submitted by Canadian Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd., one vessel to be converted at Collingwood and the other at Port Arthur. It was hoped that the work might begin October 31. The bids had been sought by the T. H. Browning Steam­ ship Company, of Detroit, which had options on the LEDUC the REDWATER until July of 1953, and would operate them under a Canadian affiliate. Troy Browning's plans never came to fruition. An unsourced Brookes clipping dated September 2, 1953, did not mention the LEDUC but indi­ cated that the REDWATER had been sold to the Upper Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Com­ pany Ltd., Toronto, while IMPERIAL WOODBEND had been sold ("last week") to the Mohawk Navi­ gation Company, Montreal. The following day, another unsourced clipping indicated that the sale of the WOODBEND was worth $3, 000, 000 and that her conversion would be done at Humber­ stone (Port Colborne) by E. B. Magee Ltd. The conversion of the REDWATER was contracted to Collingwood Shipyards and she was assigned Hull No. 151 for the job. One report says that the work actually was done at the shipyard at Port Arthur - the same yard where she had been built originally - but that was not the case and photos confirm that the conversion took place at Collingwood while, on the other side of the shipyard, planned sister GEORGIAN BAY was being finished as a bulker. The REDWATER had sailed from Sarnia under her own power and arrived at Collingwood on November 15, 1953. Her after end was left much as it had been in outward appearance, with a new mainmast placed abaft the smokestack, but the holds and deck were completely reconfigured for work as a straight-deck bulk carrier, with six new cargo compartments, 17 hatches with one-piece steel hatchcovers, and an "iron deckhand" to handle them. The lowest deck of the four-deck bridge structure was scrapped, but the top three decks of the structure were moved forward and placed atop the forecastle head. The decks around the outside of the now-forward cabins had to be narrowed considerably because of their new location, and the bridgewings were much shortened. A new foremast was made and placed atop the pilothouse. As rebuilt, the steamer had a new Gross Tonnage of 11816, while her Net Tonnage became 7950. The ship was repainted in the colours of her new owner. Her hull, forecastle and poop were still black, but her cabins became white. The foremast was buff, while the main was black. The smokestack was red with a broad black smokeband, colours that the feet had adapted from that of James Playfair, from which a number of its early upper lake vessels had come. The ship was re-registered at Toronto and renamed (b) R. BRUCE ANGUS. The name honoured Captain Robert Bruce Angus, an interesting lake "character" who had been born on January 14, 1893. He first sailed at age 14 on salt water and came to the lakes in 1910. His first command was the Eastern Steamship canaller JOHN J. RAMMACHER, becoming her master when she came out new in 1923. He was skipper of the Paterson canaller SARNIADOC (i) when she stran­ ded to a constructive total loss on Main Duck Island, Lake Ontario, on November 30, 1929, as a result of which he lost his job with the Paterson fleet. Captain Angus was severely re­ primanded by Dominion Wreck Commissioner L. A. Demers for "very poor judgment and conse­ quently poor seamanship", but he did not lose his certificate. He later became master of Upper Lakes & St. Lawrence's first ship, SARNIAN, which was acquired to carry grain to To­ ronto Elevators in 1931. He became the fleet's shore captain and marine superintendent in