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Page 117 Lawrence Seaway project opened on April 25, 1959, the Nipigon Bay was now able to trade east to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There she unloaded grain and tapped the newly developed rich supplies of iron ore for delivery to the blast furnaces of the Great Lakes. Beginning in 1966, and running for seventeen seasons before going to the wall, Nipigon Bay carried a total of 381 cargoes. Half, 50.1 percent, were grain while ore accounted for 44.4 percent. There were also twenty shipments of coal, but none after 1972. Her final coal cargo to Stelco at Hamilton was delivered in 1965. All of her remaining coal was dropped off at the Algoma Steel dock at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Ore was actually the dominant payload in the early years of this study, but it trailed off badly from 1978 on and was almost non-existant in 1981 and 1982. The busiest ore year was 1970 when twenty-one of the thirty-six cargoes were of that commodity. It was also the year when Nipigon Bay handled the most cargoes. On average the ship carried 22.4 loads per season. Six shipments of ore out of Picton, Ontario for Bethlehem Steel at Buffalo helped increase her cargo total in 1970 as it was a relatively short haul. Eleven cargoes of ore, including five from Thunder Bay, went to Hamilton while the rest of the ore was discharged at Ashtabula, Gary, Cleveland and Chicago. Backhaul up the lakes with coal, also helped increase the ship's productivity. During these final seventeen years Thunder Bay was the busiest loading port calling for 41.7 percent of the cargoes. She took on 158.5 loads there and most were grain. Only eleven were ore. The St. Lawrence ore ports of Pointe Noire, with 69 shipments, and Sept. Des with forty were followed by the thirty-nine payloads (20 coal and 19 grain) out of Toledo. Nipigon Bay called at nineteen different loading ports during these years. Hamilton and Montreal topped the twenty four discharge ports. The ship stopped there With the opening of the Seaway in 1959, she carried grain downbound and iron ore upbound. Massman Coll/Dossin Museum