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Ship of the Month - cont'd. pilothouse was set the steamer's fairly large smokestack, on the forward face of which was carried a single steam whistle. Our early photo shows no lifeboats on the hurricane deck, the only boat being a yawl kept on the spar deck but without any davit to work it. (In la­ ter years, two lifeboats, worked by radial steel davits, were placed on the hurricane deck. ) The SICKEN had two masts. The tallest and heaviest, the foremast, was set just abaft the break of the forecastle, and it carried a boom used to work cargo. A lighter and shorter mainmast rose just forward of the poop; it also seems to have been fitted with a cargo boom, but a much smaller one. The steamer appears to have been painted a light colour, either white or a light grey, per­ haps. Her cabins look to have been white, and the smokestack all black, while both masts were buff. M. SICKEN seems to have operated quite successfully for her namesake owner. The 1899 Great Lakes Register (Bureau Veritas) shows that her hull had been recaulked in 1895 and that she had been inspected in March of 1897. Other listings, such as the Blue Book, continued to show her as operating for Matthew Sicken well into the new century. We know of only one accident involving the SICKEN during this period. Late in August of 1901, there was a collision between the steel steamer S. S. CURRY, of the Hawgood fleet, and the M. SICKEN on the Buffalo River near the life saving station. A hole was punched in the side of the SICKEN, reportedly caused by the CURRY's propeller, and she sank to the ri­ ver bottom. Details of the recovery of the SICKEN were recorded by the "Buffalo Daily Courier". On September 1, preparations were begun for the salvage job, with a diver going down from a scow to inspect the damage. This work was very difficult because of the muddiness of the river water but, over succeeding days, temporary patching was put in place. On September 7, pumping was under way and by the time darkness fell, the steamer's bow had been raised eight feet. The vessel was fully afloat the following day. She was taken to the yard of the Buffalo Dry Dock Company where ten hull planks had to be replaced. The SICKEN was floated out of the drydock on September 17 and soon resumed her normal service, which continued for a further decade. The 1910 Mitchell & Co. directory showed that the Sicken fleet then included three steamers and seven barges, so business must have been good. However, Matthew Sicken passed away at Sombra on August 4, 1911, and that precipitated changes for the little steamer. The 1913 issue of Lynn's Directory showed M. SICKEN's owner and master to be John Kuhn, of Marine City. It is possible that Kuhn may have been another of the "& others" who participated in the previous ownership of the steamer. Kuhn appears to have been diversifying his shipping interests for, in 1915, M. SICKEN was taken in hand by the Walter H. Oades shipyard at Detroit, where she was fitted with a five­ legged A-frame, set on the forward portion of the spar deck. It was equipped with a long and heavy boom that reached back to just forward of the pilothouse, and also a clam-shell bucket. This equipment would have enabled the steamer to carry aggregates and coal. It would appear that when the A-frame was added, the old mainmast was removed and a new and rather skinny mainmast was positioned abaft the funnel. The Lake Carriers' Association annual lists of vessel sales indicate that M. SICKEN was sold by Kuhn to the Michigan Dock Company in 1916, and in 1917 from Michigan Dock to the Western Lumber Company. It then shows her as sold in 1919 by T. Hoey to R. Weddell. The "Detroit News" of March 6, 1919, carried a small item datelined Alpena, Michigan, March 5. It stated that W. T. Hoey, of Alpena, had sold the SICKEN to R. Weddell, Trenton, Ontario, and that she would be used in the Lake Ontario coal trade. It noted that Capt. Bowen was then in Alpena fitting out the SICKEN, and hoped to take her away about April 1. It men­ tioned that in her lumber trade, the SICKEN had been familiar to Alpena residents for two generations. It was at that point that M. SICKEN's ownership crossed the international border. She was registered at Toronto on April 14, 1919, under Canadian official number 140992, her owner being Robert G. Weddell, of Trenton, Ontario. On the Canadian register, she was shown as being 128. 5 x 26. 0 x 9. 5, 284 Gross Tons and 161 Net. Weddell was a contractor so the SICK­ EN was, as forecast by the Detroit paper, used to haul coal to Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, and likely also building materials such as sand and stone. She would have been well