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The sale of the steamer WILLIAM A. MCGONAGLE by U.S. Steel to Kinsman Marine Transit was completed in mid- December. Current plans call for the carrier to operate next season under her present name. Columbia's steamer ERNEST T. WEIR was renamed COURTNEY William J. Luke, Editor BURTON in December, honoring an Oglebay, Norton direc- tor. * The purchasers of three Q&0 vessels which have been withdrawn from service have been identified. The HERON BAY has been acquired by Bernie Ziff, a Quebec City scrap broker. The SHELTER BAY passed down the Soo on December 20th enroute to Goderich where she joins the grain sroreee fleet owned and operated by the Goderich Elevator and Transit Co., Ltd. PIC RIVER is now owned by Strathearn Terminals, Hamilton, where she will bee dis- mantled. The BLACK RIVER, however, passed down the Soo on December 10th with a winter grain storage cargo for Canada Malting at Toronto, and no sale will be finalized until Spring. * Bow repairs had been completed at the Thunder Bay shipyard on Algoma's ALGOBAY by December 22nd. She loaded ore there on that date. * Fraser Shipyards, Superior, will lengthen the WILLIAM CLAY FORD by 120-feet to 767 eer” Geen) this Winter. * Soo River Company's GEORGE G. HENDERSON will sail next Spring as the HOWARD F. ANDREWS. * Peterson Builders, Sturgeon Bay, have delivered the motorvessel JOHN HENRY to American Heavy Lift Industries. She passed downbound at Detroit on December 10th. * Bay Shipbuilding laid the keel for Hull 723, a 728-footer for American Steamship, on December 5th. * The three yards of American Shipbuilding Company remained closed at year end, the strike having been on since August 15th and the longest in the firm's history. Plens to convert Cliff's EDWARD B. GREENE and Interlake's ELTON HOYT 2ND to self-unloaders this Winter at the Company's Lorain and Toledo yards respectively will be delayed, as will completion of U.S. Steel's and Interlake's 1,000-footers. * The Ann Arbor Railroad will begin new ferry service between Frankfort and Manitowoc in mid-1979 using the VIKING, ARTHUR K. ATKINSON (idle since 1973 with engine problems) and CITY OF MILWAUKEE (recently acquired from Grand Truck & Western). * Algoma's V. W. SCULLY was down at the Soo on December 19th temporarily bearing the lettering EDMUND FITZGERALD on her bows! She will be used in filming the TV show "November Gale", scheduled to be aired to U.S. and Canadian audiences next December. * Plans to restore the 95-year-old railroad car ferry LANSDOWNE for use as a restaurant on the Detroit riverfront continued to be outlined. The project will involve upwards of $750,000. * The third in the series of new 140-foot U.S. Coast Guard Lake ice- breaking tugs, the MOBILE BAY, was recently launched at Tacoma. The first, KATMAT BAY, was drydocked at Nicholson's, Detroit for inspection on January 2nd prior to commissioning ceremonies to be held at Cleveland on January 8th. She will then proceed to her permanent station at the Soo. The second new unit, BRISTOL BAY, will be based at Detroit and is due here in May. The craft have been built by Tacoma Boat Company and will replace the 120-foot cutters KAW, OJIBWA and RARITAN. * The former British-flag salty PHOTINIA has been towed from Sturgeon Bay to Chicago for dismantling. * Another British-flag salty, the TANTALUS, cleared Sept Iles on November 21st with the largest cargo of iron ore pellets ever handled there. The load, totalling 204,380 long tons, involved the use of 2,044 railroad ore cars to move the pellets from Iron Ore Co. of Canada's Labrador City, Newfoundland facility to the St. Lawrence gulf port. This number of rail cars, placed end to end, would stretch approximately 17 miles. The TANTALUS is 1,072 feet long overall with a beam of 164 feet and mean draft of 42 feet. * For the second straight Winter, a unit of U.S. Steel's Great Lakes Fleet, the M/V EUGENE P. THOMAS, will be laid up at the American Soo. * The Port of Toledo in 1978 surpassed its single season grain- loading record for the fourth consecutive year. * The PIERSON DAUGHTERS suffered engine trouble in Lake Huron on October 17th, and summoned the tugs BARBARA ANN and GLENADA to tow her to the new Maple Leaf Mills soybean plant in Windsor, where she delivered a deck cargo of large tanks and steel structures for the plant. One