Marine News - cont'd. 6. In 1962, the motorcoaster MENIER CONSOL (C.314397) was built as Hull 63 0 of Davie Shipbuilding Ltd., Levis, Quebec, for the Anticosti Shipping Company. Designed for the pulpwood trade and thus built with an open deck, she was 2 8 3 . 0 x 4 9 .5 x 25 .5 . 2575 Gross and 1682 Net. She was powered by two tencylinder Fairbanks Morse diesel engines. In later years, she was acquired by Consolidated Bathurst Shipping Ltd., and she had been laid up at St. Jo seph de la Rive, Quebec, since September 13, 1984. She subsequently was pur chased by Transport Desgagnes Inc., apparently for spare parts for the simi lar (but foreign built) vessels J. A. Z. DESGAGNES and JACQUES DESGAGNES, but she never operated for Desgagnes. In the spring of 1 9 8 9 , MENIER CONSOL was acquired by Toronto's Norman Rogers, operator of the sailing excursion ve s sel EMPIRE SANDY, and was registered in the name of his wife, Joyce E. Ro gers. The vessel departed her lay-up berth on May 10 in tow of the tug MANIC, arrived at Montreal on May 12, and on the 21st departed in tow of R & L NO. 1, assisted in the Seaway by MANIC. The tow arrived at Toronto on May 23 and the ship was moored near the foot of Jarvis Street, where work was started on cutting the hull to shorten her by some 100 feet. The hull, allegedly to be renamed (b) TORONTO DRYDOCK after the conversion, will be used here as a drydock, no doubt to facilitate the drydocking of excursion boats such as EMPIRE SANDY. On July 7 , MENIER CONSOL was relocated at a berth at the east end of the Leslie Street slip off the Toronto turning basin, where she will be out of the way while the conversion work continues. MENIER CONSOL now occupies the berth where previously languished the origi nal Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant, the former motorferry NORMAC. Still owned by John Letnik, NORMAC had been cleaned up after she was raised from beneath the waters of the Yonge Street slip, and she was rebuilt last winter with a most peculiar superstructure. Letnik had indicated that he was seeking a U.S. city in which NORMAC might again function as a restaurant, and many observers assumed that Rochester would be NORMAC's new home. On June 24, however, she was towed up the Welland Canal by the G-tugs OHIO and DELAWARE, her destination being Cleveland. We hope that NORMAC is more suc cessful as a Cleveland restaurant than was the old steamer CANADIANA... Another former passenger vessel recently moved to new moorings is CLIPPER, the former JUNIATA and MILWAUKEE CLIPPER. We earlier reported her move late last season to the "Sun Times" dock in the Chicago River, and now we learn that she was moved on June 6 th to a spot next to the Chicago Yacht Club's "clubhouse" ABBY (the former coastal ferry ABEGWEIT). CLIPPER now lies near the foot of Randolph Street on the Chicago lakefront. The U. S. Coast Guard is constructing barges to augment the buoy-tending ca pabilities of the Bay class of 140-foot, icebreaking tugs. First of the ten ders to be so equipped will be BRISTOL BAY, stationed at Detroit, and in 1990 she will receive a 120-foot work barge fitted with a 20-ton crane. The barge will feature accommodations and recreational facilities for a crew of twelve, as well as a galley and storage space for fuel, comestibles and sew age. The stern of the barge will be notched for pushing. The second barge will be paired in 1991 with MOBILE BAY, which is stationed at Sturgeon Bay. In an earlier issue, we reported the return to service this spring of the big U. S. Coast Guard icebreaker MACKINAW. The steamer suffered misfortune on May 5th when, whilst delivering the tender MARIPOSA to the Toledo ship yard, she struck the N & W Railroad bridge and put a nine-foot tear in her starboard bow. MACKINAW, after delivering MARIPOSA, returned to her station at Cheboygan, Michigan, where the hole was patched. Meanwhile, there has been very strong support expressed for a proposal to fund the re-engining and other refurbishing of MACKINAW so that the life of the vessel might be extended indefinitely. MACKINAW already is 45 years old. The winner of the 1989 version of the Great Tug Race held at Sault Ste. Ma rie on July 1st was the Wellington Towing Inc. tug I R O Q U O I S , which captured the honours in the over-500 horsepower class. IROQUOIS was pinch-hitting for the usual Wellington entry, CHIPPEWA, which was down for mechanical repairs, and even T. M. H. S. member Capt. John Wellington had not expected IROQUOIS to win her class.