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124 Telescope First Mate Berg took us to dinner at five o'clock, and after we had been served what was easily the finest tenderloin we've ever eaten, we were joined by Captain Burke, The loading was going well, and he was now able to relax. We then learned something that we had not known all the while we watched the loading. This was really an historic trip, for it was the last time a ship would be loaded with the equipment we had seen. Great new silos have been built, and in them have been installed a greatly improved method of loading which will cut the time to about three hours. Instead of all the cumbersome set of conveyors, which we saw feeding into twenty-eight hatch openings, the new method would load with a single line of fourteen hatches down the center of the deck. The laborious turn would be no longer necessary in docking. It is a wonderful improvement, but we can't help being pleased for having seen the way it has been done for so many years. We left Alpena at a little after 8 PM, stood on the foredeck, and watched 4,769 tons of ship eased through a slit in a limestone bottomed harbor with less than thirty feet of space over the vessel width. Steered all the way through this mile and a half cut with the wheelsman looking aft....eyes glued to range lights at the departing dock....this is mean and tricky navigation. This trip was not, in the strict sense, a vacation. We had a very serious purpose in making the voyage, yet for the ensuing night and day we learned the real meaning of rest. No telephones. No callers. No responsibilities! No traffic to fight. Oh why did the passenger boat disappear? Why must everyone be in such a hurry? Next day at 3:10 we glided by the Dossin Museum. The Huron Flag was flying at the Museum's mast-head. The Captain blew a formal salute which was answered by Bill King dipping their flag. We were impressed with this exchange, and we were also impressed with the lung power of Institute President, Captain Cowles who yelled out a greeting that we heard clearly across the river! At 3:20....five minutes beyond the ETA, we arrived at the Huron Dock in Detroit. Here we were to see the seIf-unloader at work. A conveyor is rolled out over the port side and into the silo. Once again, similar but different hoses are connected. These will pump out cement while the conveyor unloads independently. In the hull on the Crapo there are a series Of screws in the hold, moving cargo to a forward lift which carries it aloft to deposit it in to the screw conveyor which moves it outboard into the plant. Here the equipment in the silo takes over. Unloading took fourteen hours. The Huron "Green Fleet" as it is known today dates back to 1915, before which time, shipments from Alpena were handled by package freighters. Cement was shipped in cloth sacks, and a great deal of time and strength went into the process. In 1915 an idea of S. T. Crapo revolutionized the method of shipping cement; carry it in bulk, instead of sacks! This idea sparked the purchase of the steamer SAMUEL MITCHELL, the first ship of the Green Fleet. The MITCHELL was^reconstructed into a self unloader in 1916, and cleared Marine City, the site of her reconstruction, heading for lpena to pick up the first shipload of cement ever carried bulk. The MITCHELL has served the Huron Fleet faithfully ever since, except for a period during World War II when, in war service,she carried sugar, coal, gypsum, and other commodities between Atlantic ports, from Nova Scotia to the West Indies. She was returned to the Huron Fleet in 1948, and again converted to a self unloader, this