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Va SRE LOG: Once again the Detroit fireboat, JOHN KENDALL, is threatened. The Detroit Common Council has ap- proved a preliminary contract to replace her with a smaller and faster boat, able to get into the many marinas and, important- ly, to get under the Belle Isle Bridge. Another significant fac- tor would be reductions in both the number and the pay scale of the crew. One fire official said the new boat, to cost $750,000, could be operated by two or three firemen. Hope someone has the presence of mind to give the boys a list of whistle signals and one of those cute plaques: "Starboard right, Port left." There's talk that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad may close down their Lorain coal docks in 1975 because their biggest customer, the Detroit Edison [o., is chan- ging from coal to oil to meet Environmental Protection Agency air pollution standards. It is ironic that Edison, which start- ed unit train operations to re- place water shipments of coal, is changing to oil just when the oil supply seems to be getting critically low. Hey, is that the DEAN and CONSTITUTION coming up the river with coal for Conner's Creek? The Head of the Lakes Maritime Society has an historical puzzle on its hands. Emil Eisemann gave them an old pilothouse for use as an office and ticket build- linge Eisemann obtained it from the town of Solon Springs some years back and doesn't know what steamer it was from. Members of the Society believe they really should be able to identify their artifact if somebody should ask so they would appreciate any as— sistance they can get. They are located at Superior, Wis. They own the whaleback METEOR, in use as their museum. John V. Carr, who has been chief engineer on the Mev. DIAMOND AL- I, reports the following as- signment changes in Boco engi- neers as a result of the fitting out of mev.es ROGER M. KYES and CHARLES L. WILSON and retirement of Stanislas Zimmer as chief of BEN W. CALVIN: Cornel- Dowd from JOHN Tf. HUTCH- INSON to the KYES; Carr from the DIAMOND ALKALI to CHARLES L. WILSON; Edward L. Schuster from HARRIS N. SNYDER to DIAMOND AL-~ KALI. These First Assistant E ineers have been promoted to Chief Engineers: Frederick Good- ell from First on the HUTCHINSON to Chief; Ernest G. Crane from First to Chief of SNYDER and Samuel E. Johnston from First on the H. LEE WHITE to Chief on the BEN W. CALVIN. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is working with the Coast Guard to develop some airborne electronic sensing equipment to map, measure and evaluate ice conditions without having to crunch into them. They tried out some of the equipment last winter and checked out its findings against actual samples of the ice they were testing. If all works well in the space bus- iness they may even use small satellites to carry the sensors some time in the future. Chuck Lampman writes from the 3. F. AFFLECK about the nattle to extend the exemption on the DEL- TA QUEEN from the Sea Safety Act until the Greene Line can get its new $15.5 million passenger boat in April, 1975. At present the exemption runs only until Nove 1, 1973. Rep. Leonor K. Sullivan (D-Mo.) has introduced a bill for the extension and an- other for approval by the Mari- time Administration for the new river passenger steamere aa y