Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 39, no. 5 (March 2007), p. 10

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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 10. logo appeared on her bows. She ran as FORDONIAN for the rest of the 1926 season, but on March 31, 1927, she was renamed (b) YUKONDOC in honour of the most westerly of Canada's northern territories. Interestingly, for as long as Paterson owned the ship, her pilothouse nameboards never were repainted and still showed the name FORDONIAN, despite YUKONDOC being painted elsewhere on the vessel. YUKONDOC proved to be of only interim value to the growing Paterson fleet, however, possib­ ly because of her unusual machinery. The company was taking delivery of a large number of steam-powered canallers built at British yards, and 1928 was the last season in which Pa­ terson ran YUKONDOC. That year, she reported suffered a grounding below the Soo Locks and she settled there but soon was refloated. Laid up for the winter at Toronto, she was sold on March 23, 1929, to Capt. Arthur Archi­ bald Hudson, of Midland, Ontario, who operated her with his brother, Capt. D'Alton Hudson, in what eventually would become the North West Transportation Company Limited, Midland. A. A. Hudson personally was shown as her owner in the 1929 Dominion List, while North West was the owner recorded in the 1930 list. On April 25, 1929, the vessel was renamed (c) GEORGIAN in honour of Georgian Bay, the home base of the Hudson operations. The Hudsons at first had an association with the James Playfair interests, and it was not unusual that GEORGIAN was painted in the same colours as were the Playfair vessels. She had a light grey hull and white upper forecastle and cabins, although the old white paint was stripped off her pilothouse and the teakwood once again was varnished handsomely. A grey stripe was painted around the lower section of the boilerhouse. Her masts were painted black, while her stack was crimson with a broad black smokeband at the top. The stack co­ lours were clearly visible, as the Hudsons had the good aesthetic sense to get rid of the ship's puny little funnel and to replace it with a stack of decent proportions. This did wonders for GEORGIAN's appearance. Interestingly, the 1932 issue of the American Bureau of Shipping register showed that GEOR­ GIAN then had a 6-cylinder oil engine, 18" cylinder diameter by 22" stroke, 865 I. H. P., while the 1932-1933 Lloyd's Register showed her as having an 8-cylinder, 15 7/20" - 23" diesel of 330 N. H. P. manufactured by Ansaldo San Giorgio, of Turin, Italy. We cannot recon­ cile this information with any rebuild or repowering of the ship while in North West Trans­ portation ownership. The Hudsons ran Georgian on a service from Toronto to Windsor, Sarnia and the Lakehead, and in Toronto she usually docked at Pier 5, on the east side of the slip to the west of the Terminal Warehouse. She was joined on the route in 1930 by the 1889-built SUPERIOR, (a) PARKS FOSTER (30). On April 21, 1930, at the opening of navigation, GEORGIAN was the first ship upbound through Locks 1, 2 and 3 of the new (but not then completed) Welland Ship Canal. She then went back into the old Third Canal and made her way through its locks 12 through 24, going again into the new canal at the Thorold Guard Gate for the rest of her upbound passage to Port Colborne. One source has stated that this entire canal transit by GEORGIAN took only three hours and six minutes, but we cannot understand how that could be possible, considering the number of old locks through which she had to pass. GEORGIAN suffered two accidents during the 1930 season. On November 10, GEORGIAN was downbound for Toronto with a grain cargo. Her steering failed as she was entering the Liv­ ingstone Channel of the Detroit River, and she struck the pierhead, punching a hole in her port side. She was freed from the pierhead and managed to reach the Brunner-Mond Corpora­ tion dock, where she settled to the bottom. J. S. McQueen, of Amherstburg, got the vessel refloated and she was taken to the Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse, Michigan, for repairs. On December 5, she struck a pier at Amherstburg and again had to go to Great Lakes Engineering Works for repairs. She managed to make it down the Welland Canal on December 11 and she was the last downbound vessel of the year for the canal. Although GEORGIAN usually carried package freight when upbound, grain was her normal down­ bound cargo. On at least three occasions, she took grain to the Great Lakes Elevator at Owen Sound. On August 13, 1929, she arrived there with 154, 592 bushels of assorted grains con­ sisting of #I and #2 feed oats, feed wheat and #2 northern wheat. On July 10, 1932, she was at Owen Sound again with 127, 893 bushels made up of #1 wheat, #1 hard wheat, "tough" #3 wheat, feed screenings and #2 clipped white oats. On October 2, 1932, she brought in 143, 318 bushels - #1 feed oats, clipped white rye, #1 hard wheat and #1 feed screenings. An unsourced clipping from Jim Kidd's clippings noted that on December 9, 1931, GEORGIAN passed upbound at the Soo, bound for the Lakehead. She was expected to be the last up tran-

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