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* The second in the series of six new U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker tugs, the BRISTOL BAY, was commissioned at her Detroit station on June 16th. The fourth tug, BISCAYNE BAY, was launched at Tacoma, Washington on March 17th. She will be stationed at St. Ignace. On June 15th, the Coast Guard cutter NAUGATUCK was decommissioned at the Soo. Built in 1938 and commissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard in April of 1939, the vessel had served the Soo area for 20 years following duty on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The old Coast Guard buoy tender TAMARACK, subject of the cover of the December 1977 Historian, began a new career this Spring as a clam and oyster dredge on Long Island Sound, New York, under the ownership of Talmadge Brothers Oyster Company. * The former Columbia self-unloader/craneboat BUCKEYE has been given new colors at Toledo by her new owner, Lake Transportation Company, Cleveland. Her hull has been painted black, her cabins gray. Her stack and engines are being removed, and a notch will be built into her stern. * The hull of the former Halco tanker CAPE TRANSPORT remains moored at Clayton, New York pending the outcome of litigation regarding her conversion to water tanker for Caribbean service. * Bethlehem's $100 million suit against Litton Industries, relating to the latter's failure to honor an agreement to build five additional 1,000-footers at its Erie yard, was recently dismissed by a Pittsburgh magistrate. He ruled that no formal agreement had ever been entered into by the two corporations. * Two 1,000-footers are temporarily sidelined with the EDWIN H. GOTT at the Duluth Port Terminal for about three weeks with reduction gear problems, and the LEWIS WILSON FOY is in drydock at Erie with stern tube problems. * IMPERIAL VERDUN has been purchased by LeRemorqueurs du Quebec', Limitee’ (Quebec Tugs, Ltd.) and will be renamed SILLERY, while IMPERIAL COLLINGWOOD reportedly has been sold to the Greater Sarnia Investment Corp. for further operation. * Medusa Cement has shelved plans to convert their steamer HULL NO. 3 (a. FRANK PURNELL i, b) STEELTON iii) to self-unloader and have chartered her to Cleveland Cliffs. Renamed PIONEER, she cleared her layup berth at Erie on June 25th. (see below). woul PIONEER fitting out at Erie Photo by Bob MacDonald