A little background on Metis: She was the last canal-sized ship built for Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). The 259 foot long carrier was launched in 1956. She was lengthened at Kingston Shipyards to 331 feet in 1959 and deepened by 5 feet. Show in drydock on January 30, 1959 (top photo and below - Queen's University Archives). An internal CSL memo proposing the conversion was copied to shipyard superintendent R.W. Sutton in October, 1958:
Metis went back to work for CSL carrying cargoes for Lake Ontario Cement and usually managed in excess of 80 trips a year. It usually loaded at Picton for Toronto or Rochester and occasionally came up the Welland Canal for Windsor. Metis ended her career as a powered freighter, tying up at Kingston, on August 1, 1983, where I photographed her in 1984 with some of her bigger fleetmates:
Metis was towed to Toronto on October 29, 1989 and, in time, rebuilt as a barge. The pilothouse was removed and a notch cut in the stern to accommodate a pusher tug. Here she is approaching Bath Lafarge cement plant on June 9, 2018 propelled by the tug Salvage Monarch:
Metis traveled down the Seaway on May 20, 1991, to begin a new career as a barge and has worked on the St. Lawrence and as a stationary storage barge at Green Bay, Windsor and Toronto. Metis is now owned by Essroc Cement and has seen considerable service carrying cargoes from Picton to Rochester as silting in the harbor has prevented the deeper draft Stephen B. Roman from servicing the port. When not in service, Metis is tied up and ready in Toronto.
My mother worked in the shipyard offices from about 1958-60. She has mentioned family being invited to see a ship being winched apart after being cut for lengthening, which I am guessing now was the Metis.
ReplyDeleteThanks, A. Great information and neat that to hear about your memories she shared! I know the Marine Museum has records and plans for all the jobs they did and I'm hoping to get there 'someday' to find out more about such projects in that timeframe.
ReplyDeleteEric
Are the Diesel Engines still on board the METIS?
ReplyDeleteI would think not, A. Not only because it would be extra weight taking away from cargo capacity, but I think they might have been in the way when the notch was cut in the stern, for the tug.
ReplyDeleteEric