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The CASON J. CALLAWAY locked downbound at the Soo at 6:30 P.M. on December 31st to mark the close of the 1980 season there. The Welland Canal closed the same day with the downbound passage of ALGOWAY. The last salty eastbound cleared the Seaway on December 17th. ¥** The J. W. Westcott Company concluded its 107th season on Bill Luke, Editor December 17th. Reflecting the downturn in marine activity during the past season, the company tallied 9,570 passages © by its Detroit office in the 250-day season, for a daily average of 38. In 1970, passages totalled 14,150 for a 284-day season, a daily average of 50. Figures for 1979 were 11,303 in a 250-day period, for a daily average of 45. ** Boco's steamer JOHN T. HUTCHINSON discharged a coal cargo at St. Joseph, Michigan on November 1lth, marking the first such event there in 30 years. ** D. C. EVEREST will be renamed CONDARRELL in 1981. Her two deck cranes will be removed this Winter, to be replaced with a single larger unit. ** Q&0's steamer LAC STE. ANNE will be equipped with the boilers from Westdale Shipping's BROOKDALE at Port Colborne this Winter, the work being performed by Herb Fraser and Associates. The BROOKDALE is being dismantled at Port Maitland. ** The earlier-announced plans to convert Halco's 730-foot motorvessel OTTERCLIFFE HALL to a self-unloader this Winter at the Thunder Bay shipyard were apparently premature. The vessel is in layup at Toronto this Winter. Halco's tanker JAMES TRANSPORT is being lengthened 42.65 feet at Halifax during the current layup. ** CSL's NIPIGON BAY is undergoing trunk decking at the Thunder Bay shipyard, while the company‘s steamer HOCHELAGA has been fitted with a new self-unloading boom of tubular design at the Portship facility there. CSL's package freight steamer FORT YORK has been placed in indefinite layup at Kingston, her place in the fleet to be filled by the motorship FORT ST. LOUIS which for ten years has been under charter out of Montreal to Clarke Transport Canada, Ltd. ** No fit-out date has been set for Amoco Oil's steam tanker AMOCO ILLINOIS laid up at Sturgeon Bay, adding to speculation that the vessel's career may be over. **x Peterson Builders are scrapping the auto ferry THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC at their Sturgeon Bay yard. ** The former Bultema tug JOHN ROEN V and barge MAITLAND NO. 1 were enroute to Mexico in late December. They had been renamed TRIO BRAVO and TRIO TRADO respectively. ** Boco's steamer JOHN A. KLING will sail for Westdale Shipping, Ltd. as LEADALE (ii). ** The Canadian-flag tanker barge LIQUILASSIE has been sold off Lakes for use in the Tampa area. ** Cleveland-Cliffs' steamer RAYMOND H. REISS cleared Cleveland “ on December 23rd for the Dwor scrapyard at Rameys Bend near Port Colborne. She was given a full layup, which may indicate a future use of at least her Nordberg diesel. ** The Straits carferry CHIEF WAWATAM resumed service on December 15th. Recently enacted legislation in a Michigan Department of Transportation bill provides approximately $2.2 million in operating subsidy, assuring her career for at least another year. ** Upper Lakes Shipping's Laker-salty CAPE BRETON MINER is undergoing major refit at the Port Weller shipyard this Winter. ** Boco's steamer DETROIT EDISON grounded on Grays Reef in northern Lake Michigan on December 22nd, inflicting heavy damage to a 350-foot section of her bottom. The vessel was moved to the Medusa Cement lakefront dock at Charlevoix for preliminary inspection prior to her tow to Bay Shipbuilding's Sturgeon Bay yard. She is to enter the drydock there for repairs on January 25th. The Chicago- based tugs ADRIENNE B. and LENNY B. assisted the badly damaged self-unloader from her grounding to Charlevoix and on to Sturgeon Bay. ** The scrapper D. G. KERR, after being refloated at Halifax, was lost some 200 miles out of Halifax enroute to Spanish breakers. No further details are yet known. ** As earlier reported here, the tandem scrap tow of the Canadian bulkers HELEN EVANS and THORNHILL departed Quebec City on September 17th behind the tug IOANNIS S. Because of mechanical problems, the tug was forced to return to Halifax with her tows on two occasions, finally clearing there November 13th, enroute to a scrapyard in Cartegena, Columbia. For the record, the HELEN EVANS was towed out of Hamilton on August 30th, the THORNHILL followed with her departure on September 4th. ¥** The Soo River Company steamer E. J. NEWBERRY has been fitted with the stern "dog-house" or "Pent-House" removed earlier from the shunter test-vessel MARINSAL, which was towed overseas for scrap earlier in the 1980 season. sr We, Ra Sa ws" One of our Society's most distinguished members, Captain Thomas Small, died at Cheboygan on Christmas Day. A member since December, 1963, Captain Small was 107 n6rS