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Page 8 to hard over through ninety degrees in twenty-four seconds with the vessel at foil speed. Melching bid on the dismantlement job for all salvage rights including the engines. Ship demolition was disappointingly slow because of delays necessitated by mitigation of so much unexpected asbestos and other carcinogens. It was almost spooky watching the special technicians in their protective white anti-contamination suits moving ghost-like down the darkened companion ways going about their business. A large vacuum system was set up to accumulate the friable or airborne asbestos in a huge wooden box on the dock remote from the boat. Asbestos production ended in 1973 and installation was not banned until after 1978. A week or so later I was back to the ship to complete my story and photography with a tour of the forward and upper portion of the vessel. By that time there was much debris laying around necessitating extreme caution when moving about. The hull was divided into four decks, the first deck, car deck, spar deck, and boat deck with nine water-tight bulkheads, eight of which extended up to the second deck. On the first deck, sometimes referred to as the flicker, were quarters for the crew and the steering engine. On the main deck, better known as the car deck, was the space provided for the rail cars. It was divided lengthwise in half with two rail tracks on each side. On the spar deck forward accommodations were provided the full width of the deck for more of the crew and included rest rooms and wash rooms. Moving aft the sequence was crew and officers' mess, galley and refrigeration space, store rooms and accommodations for the cooks. On the aft side of the galley was the main dining saloon and main lounge around the stack casing with a smoking room and men's room on the port and women's equal accommodations on the starboard side. The passenger staterooms followed. On the boat deck was space for the First Mate, Chief Engineer, Officers, and some of the crew with accommodations for other passengers and automobiles. A pilot house was at the far after end. On top of the boat deck house was the forward pilot house, captain's office and battery room. All of the deck houses were of steel construction throughout and heated by steam. The entire boat was as near fireproof as possible. For you readers who enjoy statistical trivia the vessel contained about six million pounds of steel, seven hundred thousand rivets, twenty-five miles of electrical wire, four hundred and fifty light fixtures, over two miles of pipes and about sixty-eight hundred feet of rail including guard rail. The single black stack marked with the great red ball of the PM fleet was a departure from the older two stack design and an effort towards streamlining. The hull was painted black with a wide white band flowing from the bow to the stem just below the line of the main deck. The Midland carried six hundred twenty passengers and thirty-four railway cars when it first went into service. When converted to automobiles it could accommodate up to eighty cars. Over the years she logged over four million miles mainly between Ludington and Manitowoc.