The SA-ga of the SA-Queen

There's a lot going on in this photo that appeared in the Whig on May 6, 1965. Once again, I'm finding the story behind the Queen's University Archives photo, and then some! Local fisherman William Monaghan encountered low water levels while backing down the boat ramp on West Street, but he ran out of ramp. The trailer axle broke when it dropped off the end of the paved portion of the ramp. He also had trouble manoeuvring around the barge SA Queen docked at the city wharf nearby.

Now about that SA Queen, and her cargo at the time, the tugboat Newfie Queen. They had a storied history in Kingston harbour with Pyke Wrecking & Salvage.

In mid-April 1930, the SA Queen headed to Brockville with a spile driver after working on the CPR spile docks north of the LaSalle Causeway.  She was in the Kingston Shipyards drydock on August 30 for shaft repairs. On September 26 of the same year, she headed to Point Anne to save the grounded coal boat Valley Camp.

Tugs SA Queen and Salvage Prince, skippered by Captains Phelix and Grant Pyke, respectively, set out to recover an American 130-foot yacht near Oswego, on October 20, 1931.

When the steamer ferry Wolfe Islander lost her rudder on Apr 16, 1944 the SA Queen headed out from Kingston to Livingston's Point. That's where the ferry had been going in circles, eventually close enough to the dock on the island for a deckhand to throw out a line! Brought to the Kingston Shipbuilding Co. drydock, a new rudder was immediately fabricated.

In late-May 1944, the SA Queen brought the Champion from Gananoque, where it had spent the previous five years. No longer needed after the construction of the Ivy Lea bridge, the oil burner was at Swift's wharf for repairs. Interestingly, here's the Champion at the Canadian Dredge & Dock drydock in a July, 1938 Whig ad: 

The Wolfe Islander was laid-up on December 23, 1955 - the earliest date since the winter of 1929 - due to a broken rudder in the ice. The Newfie Queen and Salvage Prince brought the ferry to the shipyards from Wolfe Island. 'Buck' Mullin's Saucy Sally was pressed into service until ice formed.

In late-October, 1956 the SA Queen and Salvage Prince went to assist the Grey Beaver, loaded with grain for Montreal, aground off Alexandria Bay. Grain was lightered into the barge Hilda.

On February 20, 1958, the SA Queen was in the Kingston Shipbuilding Co. drydock with the Wolfe Islander. The former for repairs from a grounding the previous fall, the latter for its four-year survey.

On August 11, 1958 the SA Queen, with its crew Capt Lyle Dougan, Jack Sudds, Tom Compeau, Ken Eves and cook Mrs McCloskey, helped rescue the cabin cruiser Gypsy from Rochester, NY.

May 18, 1960 saw the diminutive Newfie Queen and the Salvage Queen guiding the laying of the submarine telephone cable to Wolfe Island. The Newfie Queen was based in Brockville at the time.

I need to complete some research:  

• on the connection between the SA Queen and the ferry Hiawatha, currently a diveable wreck in Oakville, former a Toronto yacht club island ferry
• did the Salvage Queen become the SA Queen
• disposition of the Salvage Queen
• Another salvage vessel named Salvage Queen worked on the West Coast.
• Vimeo NFB restoration of the Salvage Prince, last of the Great Lakes steam-powered tugs, sold for scrap in 1973