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Page 60 During the next five years she delivered cargoes as the economy rose. Steamship executives were modernizing their fleets with new vessels or repowering older vessels. The demand for cargo was so great that just five years after her launch, the HOYT was lengthened 72 feet in 1957, thus increasing cargo capacity by 2,500 tons. In 1980 she would follow another pattern in the shipping industry and be converted to a seIf-unloader in Toledo, OH. The HOYT carried mostly iron ore during her career to major U.S. ports and also passed down the Seaway in October, 1977, when the miners went on strike in Minnesota and Michigan. The HOYT didn't appear much in the shipping news until late December, 1983, when she encountered heavy weather while downbound in Lake Huron and suffered damage. Lloyd's stated the damage as follows: Vessel developed fractures across the weather deck about amidships, extending through gunwale bar and internally through side tank and deck beams starboard side." While docked in Detroit, the damaged areas were reinforced and she travelled under her own power with tug escort to Ashtabula, OH for repairs. During the winter, boat watchers wondered if the surveyors would find more damage, but to everyone's relief, the HOYT was repaired and returned to service the following season. During her fifty years of operating for the Interlake Steamship Company, the HOYT served well as a small vessel capable of delivering cargoes to new markets as steamship companies tried to broaden their base as steel mills began to slow production. The HOYT was no longer needed by Interlake and Lower LakesTowing was looking to expand their emerging Canadian fleet. In January, 2001, they purchased the CALCITE II, MYRON C. TAYLOR and GEORGE A. SLOAN from USS to operate under Grand River Navigation. On April 10, 2003, they announced the purchase of the HOYT. She will be registered Canadian flag and be renamed MICHIPICOTEN. Story compiled by Kathy McGraw ELTON HOYT 2ND loading ore in Marquette, MI Photo by R. Lelievre