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TELESCOPE Page 116 at Triad Salvage. When the chadburn rang 'Finished with Engines" and the pilot house and forward cabin windows were covered, all signs pointed toward a fate by scrapping. Yet, three months later, six months later, even longer, she still sat waiting. Perhaps she would enter a new phase of life as a supply barge for offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps she would become a drilling rig her- self if drilling in Lake Erie became a reality. Or perhaps she would be sold to steam again for some other vessel company. Indeed, these were all possibilities that were mentioned for the then 69-year old former Queen. Hope for a new life seemed brightest a full year later. During November 1981, the Snyder Jr. was moved out from her Triad Salvage berth to a spot opposite the Ashtabula Coast Guard station. Then, on December 12, 1981, she departed Astabula in tow of the Great Lakes Towing tug Ohio. Her destination was Toledo, Ohio. Studies had been completed and plans formulated to convert several Great Lakes bulk freighters to enable them to carry con- tainers in the Seaway trade. The Snyder Jr. was one of the candidates for conversion. She, and the other vessels involved (among them the steamers Cadillac, Champlain, and Willis B. Boyer), would be outfitted with deck fittings enabling each vessel to carry up to 200 containers. The ships would continue to carry traditional bulk cargo in their holds. The container vessels would be handled by a new company, Seaway Lines, Inc., formed in part by Cleveland Cliffs Steamship Com- pany. Seeing the newly modified container ships as a key to renewed business, the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority demonstrated willingness to back the conversion project by issuing $11.5 million in industrial develop- ment bonds to provide funding. Plans were that the Snyder Jr. as well as the other converted vessels, would carry outboard containers from Great Lakes ports to Montreal and Quebec, from where they would be transshippped overseas. In addition, the Snyder Jr. would carry conventional bulk cargo - coal and grain - to lower St. The SNYDER JR. in the colors of the Shenango Furnace Company, for whom she sailed from 1912 until 1967. Photo courtesy of Interlake Steamship Company