It has been a while since we have had a request for information from one of our members. Hence we are pleased to respond to Laurence M. Scott of Brockville who has asked for information on the old C.S.L. package freighter CITY OF OTTAWA.

CITY OF OTTAWA (27), (a) INDIA (06), (c) INDIA (29), (d) SAULT STE. MARIE (30), (e) INDIA. (U.S.100008, C.122018). Iron passenger and package freight steamer built 1871 at Buffalo by King Iron Works, Gibson and Craig, subcontractors. 210.0 x 32.6 x 14.0, Gross 1239, Net 932. Built for J.C. & E.T. Evans, Buffalo, whose operations later became the nucleus of the Anchor Line, marine affiliate of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Operated 1872-92 as a unit of the Lake Superior Transit Company, a pool fleet operating Buffalo to Duluth. Reverted to Anchor Line 1892. Sold 1906 (after commissioning of JUNIATA) to the Montreal and Lake Erie Steamship Company, Toronto, and operated by the Jaques Line. Later absorbed into the Merchants Mutual Line which in 1913 was merged into Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., Montreal. Operated in passenger and package freight service until c.1914 but afterwards in freight-only trade until 1926. Gross 1323, Net 671 as freighter. Idle 1926-28. Sold 1928 to Charles F. Mann, Marine City, Michigan, but sold again 1929 to the Algoma Steamship Company, Hamilton, who attempted operation on an unsuccessful package freight service Toronto - Fort William. Sold 1930 at a bailiff's sale in Detroit for $7,000 to the Pine Ridge Coal Company, Detroit, and cut down to a barge. Sold 1934 to C.W. Bryson's Copper Steamship Company, Cleveland. Requisitioned 1942 by the U.S. Maritime Commission and taken down the Mississippi for proposed salt water service. Her conversion never took place. Abandoned on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans and scrapped c.1945.

INDIA was, of course, one of the famous Anchor Line triplets, considered by some to have been amongst the most beautiful passenger boats ever to operate on the Great Lakes. Her sisterships CHINA and JAPAN also passed to Canadian registry and distinguished themselves as CITY OF MONTREAL and CITY OF HAMILTON, respectively.

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