7. Marine News - cont'd. For those of you who may have been wondering, we confirm that the last of the canal motorships is once again in service this year. The Erie Na­ vigation Company's DAY PECKINPAUGH, (a) INTERWATERWAYS LINE INCORPORATED 101 (32), (b) I. L.I. 101 (36), (c) RICHARD J. BARNES (58), is again operating in the cement trade between Oswego and Rome, . The vessel, of a type which once was common on the barge canal and the , was built in 1921 at Duluth. She received a new mid-body in 1946 and was converted to a self-unloading cement carrier in 1962. We hope that her owner will see fit to keep this historic ship in service for many more years to come. The era of the railroad-operated carferry on the Great Lakes is rapidly com­ ing to a close. The open lake train-ferries that once crossed Lakes Ontario, Erie and Michigan are long gone (only BADGER remaining in Lake Michigan auto and passenger service), and the last railroad ferries in service have been those crossing the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. Unfortunately, railferry service between Detroit and Windsor has now come to an end, the rail tunnel under the river having been enlarged to enable the passage of extra-high rail cars. The last Detroit River carferry crossing was maintained by the Norfolk Southern Railway, which used the tugs R. G. CASSIDY and F. A. JOHNSON to push the (cut down steamers) MANITOWOC, ROANOKE and WIND­ SOR ever since the use of self-propelled steam ferries was discontinued by the former Norfolk & Western Railway (successor to the Wabash Railroad on the route) in 1969. The Norfolk Southern ferry crossing was terminated of­ ficially on May 1st, 1994, although the last sailings actually took place on Saturday, April 30th . On the St. Clair River, there latterly have been two railferry crossings be­ tween Sarnia and Port Huron. The more northerly route has been operated by Canadian National Railways, using the barges SCOTIA II and ST. CLAIR, pushed by the tugs PHYLLIS YORKE and MARGARET YORKE. This service eventually will be rendered redundant when the second C.N. tunnel under the river is com­ pleted, but that work was delayed by problems encountered in February by "Excalibore", the machine being used to bore the new tunnel. Nevertheless, although it had been planned to discontinue the Sarnia ferry crossing by about the end of August anyway, the opening of the enlarged tunnel at Wind­ sor allowed high rail cars to be routed that way. Accordingly, at the end of May, Canadian National eliminated two of the three daily crew shifts on the Sarnia crossing. A more southerly crossing at Sarnia still is operated by Chessie System Railroads, using the barge PERE MARQUETTE 10 and the pusher- tug C & 0 452. One of the Great Lakes' most hard-luck ships in recent years has been the American Steamship Company's 1,000-foot self-unloader INDIANA HARBOR, which seems to have spent almost as much time at the Sturgeon Bay shipyard in 1993 and 1994 than she has spent in service. Last season, she not only had a se­ rious stranding at Muskegon but, immediately after emerging from the ship­ yard, she had a most embarrassing encounter with the Lansing Shoals light­ house. Believe it or not, INDIANA HARBOR repeated her Muskegon grounding with a similar incident in almost the same spot on August 17, 1994, and once again she was chased back to Sturgeon Bay for repairs to her bottom plating. Our members will have been able to read much in the press about the explora­ tion of the wreck of the EDMUND FITZGERALD that was done during July, and the finding of a body on the floor of Lake Superior near the wreck. But more interesting to us were reports to the effect that on July 29, the research ship H.M. C. S. CORMORANT, which was performing an expedition in Georgian Bay off Cabot Head, found a wreck in deep water. The same object previously had been detected by the C.C. G.S. SAMUEL RISLEY. CORMORANT launched her mini­ submarine to examine the find, and it was discovered that the wreck was that of the wooden steamer THOMAS R. SCOTT, which had foundered off Cabot Head in September of 1914. Owned by the Peninsula Tug & Towing Company, of Wiarton, the SCOTT had been bound for Owen Sound with a cargo of lumber when she was lost.