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BUSY AT GODERICH Harborwise movement of vessels and discharge of storage grain cargoes is under way at Goderich, which is sheltering one of the biggest winter fleets of the port's history. Purity i Flour Mills has finished the unloading of the Paterson Line freighters Canadoc and Fort Wildoc, and the Goderich Elevator and Transit Co, has started cutting ice to provifte channels for the shifting of sfi; loaded vessels from lay-up berths to the elevators. SPEED UP WORK Officers of Colonial: and Sarnia steamships fleets at Rort Colborne are now aboard taking inventory and startm«the..fittmg out of their vessels for^Bytesible early opening of navigation which may be speeded up here by the ice-breaker Mackinaw, which;' ^reported ready to break a channeTlnto Port Colborne and the Welland Canal from Lake Erie about Matfjjii 15. The work or^ fitting out the 25 vessels of the Port Colborne winter fleet has started. Officers are already aboard and crews are expected for many before the end of this week. Installation of new tank tops and shell plates on five vessels here, the . Saskadoc and Soodoc of Paterson : Steamships, the Dohnaconna of Can- 1 ada Steamship Lines, and the Scott Misener and J. O. McKellar of Sarnia Steamships are nearing completion. ADVOCATE SUBSIDIES Subsidies for tramp shipping havi; been advocated by heads of U.Sj transportation lines and their repre-1 sentations have been supported bj Congressmen in discussion with the U.S. Commerce and Industry Asso^ ciation. The greater part of' tramr. shipping in the past was controlled by Japanese and Greeks, with a small portion in British and Norwegian hands. . American' shipping interests never were able to compete against the 'meagre seamen's wages and maintenance costs of the Japs and Greeks, and in only a comparatively few, instances could British or Norwegian; interests do more than meet operating costs. RENAME VESSELS Paterson Steamships, Ltd., is following the lead of Royal Navy in I perpetuating its fleet ship names, and lhas rechristened two recently pur-! chased vessels, the E. E. Johnson and :the Ethel as namesakes respectively I of the Altadoc and the Portadoc, Ice was cut, hoisted out and con- i veyed over the river side of the! breakwater to make way for the movement of Canadoc and Fort Wildoc to the Purity Mills elevator. The accumulation, 40 feet high, is being dynamited to clear a channel to the Goderich Elevators. WILL TRY AGAIN U.S. Maritime Commission is up against a tough problem in trying to induce ship breakers and scrap dealers to take over-age Great Lakes j vessels off its hands. No satisfactory bids were received by the commission in response to invitations issued last November, so new advertisements have been drafted for bids on eight coal-burning lake carriers that have been turned over by War Shipping Administration. TAKEN AS TRADE-INS These eight old barnacles are part of a group of 36 over-age vessels \ that were taken as trade-ins by the Maritime Commission on new construction and subsequently were operated by War Shipping Administration. Under the original invitation for bids, purchasers would have been permitted to use the hulks as stationary units or to dismantle' and scrap them. The published invitations restricted operation of the vessels to one outward voyage, with or without cargo, to the point of utilization or to breaking-up yards. 'Navigation Season Opens at Toronto Toronto, March 16.— (CP)—Navi-jgation in the port of Toronto officially opened yesterday when the ,0il tanker Brit.arnnW nnripr Capt. Barney Zink, completed the first run of the season. The tanker, property of the British American Oil Company, returned to port with a cargo of crude oil from the Clarkson refinery. Harbourmaster Harold Snelgrove last night formally placed the 75-year-ol(|! sjlk hat which the city of Toronto-' annually presents to the first captain arriving, on Capt. Zink's head. The Britamolene opened the 1944»season, but was about two weeks*Tater this year. TO©'TO TACKLE ICE •„/ Kingston, March 16 (Special).— The P«ke tug Salvage Prince jyij| attempt to open navigation in Kingston harbor Tuesday morning when it will try to break a chanrieT in the ice from the plant of the Kingston Shipbuilding Company^, tot Lasalle Causeway to permit softie'"* lake freighters to be taken to, dry dock for repairs. HERE'S YOUR HAT lT'S THE HURRY? y Capt. B. J. Zink of the JfiBigJie, is seen here with the tradi-tional topper he received from Toronto's harbor master, H. J. Snelgrove, when he docked; his ship in Cherry St. basin last njyjik. Capt. Zink was not only first ship of '45 to reach Toronto but' Be" arrived earliest of any vessel '"in many, many years," the harbor master said. ' BUSIER THAN EVER Toronto Dry Dock Co.'s Don Basin plant has stepped up its operating tempo with the advent of spring, and the shops are busier than ever. Engine fitters, machinists, boilermakers, carpenters and caulkers certainly appreciate "the cheering power of spring." It facilitates their work tenfold as compared with snow, ice and romping winter gales. The big MacNamara Construction scow and the ferry T. J. Clark are in the floating dock at present and work is well along on both of them. Algerine minesweepers probably will use the dock soon. GETTING READY At Port Dalhousie, the winter repair fleet is emerging with a lot of 1 new work accomplished. Translake , is in process of overhaul and r.e"Hf-' ting for tidewater service. Tran.s-jjyer and Transbay are readying up and will stay in lake trade. .vSlflv Canm and Coalfax probably will be ready to sail aboi^t April 1. Blue River is in the dock getting a new bow. She followed :r$er Upper Lakes and St. Lawrence sister, Wrtrrp"i to the dock and the Warren is about ready for fitting out. LAKE ONTARIO LEVEL Lake Ontario's level to-day is 246 feet 2% inches above mean tide level at New York. It is VA inches higher than yesterday, 2% higher than one year ago, and two feet \\V«, inches lower than the extreme high stajge