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Dues and Log Correspondence 20255 Wellesley Birmingham, MI 48010 Bill Luke, Editor Repairs to the west wall of Lock 7 in the Welland Canal were completed within the scheduled time period. The salty FURIA, which was beginning her downbound exit of the lock when the wall collapsed on October 14th, began her second departure from the lock at dawn on November 7th. At the time, a total of 126 vessels were reportedly awaiting transit on the Welland Canal system; 76 upbound, 50 downbound. *** The abandoned Wisconsin Draw railroad swing bridge on St. Louis Bay at Duluth was blown up by wreckers on November 15th. Some 165 pounds of explosives were used to demolish the bridge’ superstructure. *** The Panamanian flag salty SOCRATES was blown ashore near the entrance to Duluth Harbor on November 18th. The vessel is resting in only four feet of water and will require dredging to be released. She had been awaiting a grain cargo when heavy winds blew her on the beach. *** The 69-year-old former U.S. Corps of Engineers dipper dredge COL. D.D. GAILLARD was placed in her new earthen mooring on Barker's Island at Superior, Wisconsin on November 14th, not far from a similarly land-locked former Great Lakes tanker, the whaleback steamer METEOR. The dredge next spring will become part of the tourist attraction center there administered by Head of the Lakes Maritime Society. *** Collingwood Shipyards’ launch of the Canadian Coast Guard's new icebreaker has been rescheduled for Decmeber 6th, one day later than originally planned. *** The first of the thirteen U.S. flag 1,000-footers on the Great Lakes has been sold. Hanna's GEORGE A. STINSON will don American Steamship Company colors this layup period and be engaged by them in the carriage of iron ore pellets to National Steel's Zug Island mill. Hanna's only remaining straight-deck bulk carriers, the steamers GEORGE M. HUMPHREY and PAUL H. CARNAHAN, would appear to be headed for the breakers. In a most intriguing move, Cliffs' handsome steamer WILLIAM G. MATHER has been relocated from her long time berth at the old coal docks near the I-280 bridge in Toledo to the Lakefront dock area there. It is understood that the MATHER may be fitted out next season for the grain run for Cliffs, under management of Ford's Rouge Steel Company. *** Rouge Steel's newly-acquired steamer WILLIAM CLAY FORD (2), better Temembered as_ Cliffs’ WALTER STERLING, will be converted from DC to AC Power this winter and equipped with an automated boiler trim control system, these improvements to cost an estimated $2 million. *** Another winter project in the offering is the repowering of Paterson's steamer COMEAUDOC, slated to get an 8,160 brake horsepower Krupp Mak. diesel at Collingwood Shipyards. The engine, a duplicate to that powering Paterson's new motorship PATERSON, completed at Collship this past June, will replace an 8,500 horsepower Westinghouse steam turbine and Foster- Wheeler boilers. This repowering job and attendant results will be closely monitored by other Great Lakes vessel owners and operators who are contemplating similar re-engining projects, as steam continues to fade from our marine scene. *** The operation of the former CSL package freighter FORT YORK as a tow barge between Windsor and the Canadian Lakehead appears finished, shortly after it began. Difficulties encountered in towing the vessel are said to be principally responsible for her being withdrawn from this trade. *** Another Auxiliary Rescue Salvage tug, completed for the the U.S. Navy by Peterson Builders of Sturgeon Bay, was downbound on her delivery trip in the Welland Canal on November 11th. Her job description name - U.S.S. GRASP. *** The former Erie Sand motorship NIAGARA was towed out of Erie, Pennsylvania on October 28th, enroute to scrappers at the Marine Salvage yard at Ramey's Bend near Port Colborne. The veteran laker (1897) was built by Wheeler at West Bay City and converted for the sand trade in 1927. Her conversion to self-unloader and diesel repowering were completed in 1959. Her principal role in her last years of operation was hauling sand from Saginaw Bay to the GM foundry on the Saginaw River. It is presumed that this colorful vessel will be dismantled there on the Welland Canal. *** A second former Amoco tanker, the AMOCO ILLINOIS, was towed downbound at Port Huron on October 31st, enroute to a scrap yard below