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In 1962, the Pioneer Steamship Co. division folded. Most of its vessels were aging, smaller carriers that could not find new homes with other owners and were scrapped shortly after the end of the 1961 season. Some of the fleet's larger vessels were luckier. The new Pioneer Challenger went to the Columbia Transportation Div.of Oglebay Norton Co.and was renamed Middletown, a name she carries today. The Charles L. Hutchinson was bought A by the Ford Motor Co. over the winter of 1961-'62 As the nation and renamed Ernest R. Breech, after a former chair- entered a recession man of the Ford Motor Co. board of directors. With the change in ownership came a change in in the early 1980s, trade routes. While Duluth and Superior remained demand for Ford frequent loading ports, the Ford Motor Co.'s steel mill A on the Rouge River in Dearborn became the usual automobiles — at destination for the Breech. The vessel would also least the larger make some shorter runs, carrying iron ore from P Escanaba or Marquette to the mill, and would also automobiles popular occasionally carry coal. The same general pattern th rough most of the prevailed over the next two decades. As the nation entered a recession in the early 1980s, 1970s — waned, so demand for Ford automobiles — at least the larger the company looked automobiles popular through most of the 1970s - . waned, so the company looked for alternative busi- for alternative ness for its boats. The Breech’s sister ship from Defoe business for its boats. Shipbuilding - the Richard M. Marshall (which went through two ownership changes earlier in its career and joined the Breech in the Ford fleet in 1966 as John Dykstra) was engaged in some unusual runs in the early 1980s, including carrying iron ore to Hamilton, Ont., a rare venture for any U.S. laker.The Breech had some better options available thanks to her large cubic dimensions that made her suitable for the grain trade. During the early 1980s she carried grain from Duluth and Superior to Buffalo on an increasingly frequent basis. As a non-self-unloader, the long turn-around time at the Rouge River steel mill was ipecomingia’ a enol so Ford started looking for ways to turn the iron ore duti: to loaders. By the fall of 1984, Ford had purchased the steamers Walter A. Sterling and Edward B. Greene from Cleveland- Cliffs Steamship Co., which had fallen on hard times in the shipping business earlier in the decade. This move put Ford's largest boat, the William Clay Ford, out of service immediately. Her size and speed were competitive, but since she lacked self-unloading gear, her unloading time was too great to be cost effective. William Clay Ford and fleet- mate John Dykstra were sold for scrap in 1986. The Breech was saved and would set- tle into her new role in the grain trade. Not long after, and even with two newly purchased self-unloaders, it become appar- ent to Ford that it might be better off leaving the Great Lakes shipping industry entirely, hiring other companies to carry its raw materials. Ford certainly didn’t anticipate long- term benefit from remaining in the grain trade. At the same time, one of the oldest inde- pendent operators on the Great Lakes - George Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Lines - was looking to update its fleet. t only seemed natural that she would make a better fit there, as her days of primarily carrying iron ore were over. As a relative youngster at age 35, the vessel still had many solid years of service ahead. The rumor mill about a possible sale was active in 1987, and early in 1988 the sale was confirmed. The Breech would > KYS 2003