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TELESCOPE Page 116 After the introduction of the four diesel vessels, the first major operator to become interested in crane vessels was the Inter- lake Steamship Company, which operated a large fleet of vessels of all sizes. In 1926 Interlake equipped one of its older vessels with two cranes or "whirlies", thus the La- gonda became the first Lakes crane vessel conversion. The 30-year old Lagonda had its deck modified with all of the small hatches removed. Instead three large holds were introduced which could be reached by the cranes. These two cranes were relatively small in capacity, having a boom length of about 25 feet, but were mobile on the deck. Rails were laid to allow the cranes to travel from one end of the deck to another to reach every corner of the holds. The hull of the Lagonda required some reinforcing because of the loss of structural strength of the deck when the larger holds were introduced, as well as to beef up the supports to withstand the stress of the movement of the cranes. In 1927 Interlake continued its crane vessel expansion by converting the Venus. The Venus received two small "whirlies" which were virtually identical to those on the Lagonda and its conversion was similar. The venus remained with Interlake and later Bethle- hem's Ore Navigation Company until being sold in 1959 when her name changed to Steel Products. Interlake continued its crane vessel expansion in 1928 with the conversion of the Jupiter. The Jupiter's conversion, however, was different and will be described later. Gartland Steamship Company of Chicago had acquired a small fleet of old U.S.-built canal-type vessels and had them returned to the Great Lakes in the 1920's. One of them, Back Bay was converted to a crane vessel in 1924 to haul various products through the Great Lakes and Welland Canal areas. The virtually identical Bennington and Burlington were similarly converted to crane vessels in 1929. Although Gartland was among the first Great Lakes operators, they never entered the field with larger crane ships, preferring to remain with the canallers. The Burlington foundered in 1936, and the balance of the Gartland ships went to the coast at the out- break of World War I. Another crane vessel conversion of the 1920's was the whaleback Henry Cort, which received her cranes in 1927. The Cort thus Peel ees The small craneship STEEL CHEMIST could pass through the Welland Canal and St. Lawrence system to deliver pig iron to the east coast ports. McDonald Coll/Dossin Museum