The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. Engineering Works. 12. The WESTERN ST A R 's underwriters then sold the salvaged steamer for $385,000 to the Valley Camp Coal Company, which transferred her to the ownership of its Canadian affiliate, the Great Lakes Transportation Company Ltd., Midland, Ontario, of which James Playfair was manager. The ship was registered at Midland under official number C. 138214 in 1918, and she was rechristened (b) GLENISLA. The necessary repairs were put in hand by the Collingwood Ship building Company Ltd., whose drydock at Collingwood could facilitate the ex tensive work required by the hull. After this work was finished, final re pairs and refurbishing were completed at Midland, and the steamer was put in service by the Playfair fleet during 1 9 1 8 . During her years of operation for James Playfair, GLENISLA was painted in t h e usual Playfair colours. Her hull was a light grey, her forecastle and cabins were white, and her stack was crimson with a wide black smokeband at the top. During this stage of her career, GLENISLA received an extra small deckhouse which was placed atop the texas, just behind the pilothouse. It apparently provided additional accommodation space for the officers. GLENISLA's years in the service of the Great Lakes Transportation Company Ltd. were generally successful and uneventful, as the steamer operated main ly in the grain and coal trades. There is record of the ship stranding some four miles from Whitefish Point, Lake Superior, on November 11, 1922, but we have no further details. In 1924, GLENISLA entered the drydock at Collingwood for lengthening to in crease her cargo capacity. While at the shipyard, she was lengthened to 494. 0 feet, the reconstruction increasing her tonnage to 5461 Gross and 4268 Net. Once back in service, GLENISLA continued in the same trades as be fore and, as usual, she was a frequent visitor to the grain elevators in the ports of Georgian B a y . On April 1 6 , 1926, Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., Montreal, absorbed the fleet of the Great Lakes Transportation Company Ltd. as a result of an arrangement concluded with the Valley Camp Coal Company. The steamer was painted in the C. S. L. colours during the 1926 season, and her name was changed to (c) PRES COTT, in honour of the Canadian city, located on the upper St. Lawrence Ri ver, to which C. S. L. vessels traded regularly. PRESCOTT,of course, was un able to trade as far east as her namesake city until the opening of the new Welland Ship Canal in the early 1930s. By that time, however, the effects of the Great Depression were making them selves felt strongly in the lake shipping business and, like many of the bulk carriers in the C. S. L. fleet, PRESCOTT saw only limited service. In fact, she remained in lay-up at Goderich from 1932 until 1935. As business began to pick up in subsequent years, so PRESCOTT returned to more regular operation, doing so successfully and without untoward incident. In 1949, the steamer was fitted with two replacement Scotch boilers, which measured 1 6 '6 " by 12' 6 " and were fired with coal. These boilers were not new, however, for they had been built back in 1940 for a wartime vessel and were reclaimed for use in PRESCOTT. As well, in the early 1950s, the steam er's texas cabin was rebuilt and she was given a new and much larger steel pilothouse which, although still of the "turret" style, provided more space for the officers on watch and for the additional navigation equipment which was coming into use. At about the same time, a closed rail was constructed around the front of the bunker hatch atop the boilerhouse. PRESCOTT, despite her age, continued in operation into the spring of 1 9 6 2 . She was becoming more and more expensive to operate, and she was difficult to load and unload with her fifteen old-style hatches. As yet, however, the C. S. L. fleet had only just begun the complete updating of its roster which was permitted as a result of the opening of the large locks of the new St. Lawrence Seaway, and PRESCOTT, along with several other venerable upper la ke bulk carriers, remained in service. Observers remarked, however, that pe culiar noises seemed to be issuing from her engineroom as they watched her pass by.