S/S Baygeorge Collides with Causeway

Early on the Sunday morning of October 15, 1967 the 350 foot-long coal carrier S/S Baygeorge collided with the Lasalle Causeway bridge. She'd just returned from Rochester, NY with 4,000 tons of coal in her holds. (More on the Baygeorge here.)

Having dropped anchor in the area of the former frigate HMCS Inch Arran after passing under the causeway bridge lift span, she was nosing over to the Anglin coal dock when winds caused her to slip her anchor, hit some pilings and then 'bounce into' and collide with the bridge span. The bridge was out of commission for the rest of Sunday. Workers from the Kingston Shipyards repaired damage, including a large dent, to get the bridge back into action for Tuesday. Damage was pegged at $20,000. 

Bayswater Shipping launched a 'master's protest' against the presence of the Inch Arran with Department of Transport marine officials. The Baygeorge's captain had expected to use the mud bar the Inch was sitting on to slow his vessel's progress. As a result of the collision and potential ongoing risk, the shipping company gave notice that Anglin's freight rates for coal were to be raised! This in turn could affect Anglin's commercial viability i.e. its balance sheet. 

At the time, the Baygeorge was the only vessel capable of manoeuvring into the Anglin dock, especially with only 900 feet of space due to the position of the Inch. This, after an earlier incident in which the coal-carrier also dropped anchor to avoid the old frigate and sustained a hole in her hull requiring $15,000 in repairs. Four more trips to Kingston were planned before the end of the 1967 shipping season. Without using her self-unloading boom, stevedores would have to be hired.

(Top photo from Queen's University Archives, photo above from shiphotos)

I'm saving up energy to publish an exhaustive post on the Inch Arran's checkered stay in Kingston. Until that gets written, this is just one more data point in the problems that the former warship is thought to have caused, being an Inner Harbour navigational hazard!