The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ve >the LOG ~_W BULLHORN Mid-September finds vessel traffic at its lightest in many years. On Auge. 17 the SIU called a strike which has halted almost all Canadian shipping with the exception of the Upper Lakes fleet (a different union), tankers and a few sandboats. To date the strike appears to be a dead- lock with many saying that it will not end in time for the boats to resume operations this season. In early Septem- ber, the union permitted em- ergency crews to move CSL's self-unloaders STADACONA and HOCHELAGA so they could un- load storage cargoes of coal which had become dangerously overheated. In the U. S. fleets, most of the vessels that fitted out last spring are still on the go. Exceptions are FRANK E. TAPLIN (a.CHARLES W. KOTCHER) which laid up, reportedly for good, in July, and the steam- ers SYLVANIA (see July LOG) and PAUL L. TIETJIN which have not reappeared in the passages since their separate accidents. The Ford fleet has been laid up because of the UAW strike, the HENRY FORD at Manitowoc and the others at their Rouge basin. Rumors in- dicate that early lay-up may be in store for many boats this fall. Racial troubles in two port cities affected passenger op- erations. At Milwaukee, pas-— sengers arriving on the MIL- WAUKEE CLIPPER on Aug. 3 were formed into a convoy and giv- en a police escort out of towne. At Detroit, civil dis- order forced the Bob-Lo boats to cease operations for three days. On several nights the steamers COLUMBIA and STE. CLAIRE were anchored in the River to prevent damage. Detroit's Gaelic Tug Boat Line doubled the size of its fleet in August when the tug DONEGAL (a.REID McALLISTER) arrived from New York City. When the W.eC.RICHARDSON load- ed stone at Kelleys Island on July 30 she became the larg- est vessel to load at the Is- land since the quarries shut down in 1939. Reactivated several years ago, the quar- ries were recently sold by the Breckling interest of Cleveland to the Medusa Cem- ent Corpe t is reported that CSL's THUNDER BAY will be converted to a self-unloader at Port Arthur this winter. SHIPYARD SHAVINGS Litton Industries says that it will build three ore boats for its Wilson Fleet. The new boats, the first of which is to be ready by 1970, will be 15,000-hp diesel self-unload- ers with 2,000-hp bow and stern thrusters. They will operate at 16 mph and unload at the rate of 20,000 tons per hour. Length of the ships has not been decided upon. Litton is still talking about plans for their new shipyard at Erie but as far as is now known, no work has started. A Cleveland group headed by George M. Steinbrenner III have taken control of Ameri- can Ship Building Co. Mean- while, Amship's 1967 Annual Report says, "In our opinion, at least 10 to 20 new lake vessels will be contracted for in the next five years." Papachristidis' 730-foot FEUX FOLLETS is scheduled to be christened at Canadian Ship-— building's Collingwood yard on Oct. 10 and should be rea- dy to enter service shortly thereafter, providing the SIU