Elsewhere in this issue, we have commented upon the recent retirement of the Quebec and Ontario Transportation Company Ltd. steamer HERON BAY (II). This lake veteran was withdrawn from service in early November and is now laid up at Quebec City awaiting her destiny. It would have been fitting for the old girl to have had an uneventful final voyage and we can just picture her sailing proudly into Quebec prior to letting down steam for the last time. Things did not work out quite that way, however, for HERON BAY suffered a failure of her steering apparatus (we do not know the exact details of the problem) during her last voyage and had to be assisted by a tug from Port Cartier back to Quebec City. What a way for her 73rd and final year of service to end!

A late report indicates that the former Straits of Mackinac passenger and auto ferry VACATIONLAND will not be returning to the lakes for the proposed ferry service between DeTour Village and Meldrum Bay. The Michigan State Highway Commission had taken an option on the purchase of the boat, which is now lying idle on the British Columbia coast, but the Commission has apparently decided that the expected level of patronage for the new route could not justify the cost of purchase, repair and operation of the 26-year-old ferry. The Commission's announcement made no mention of whether the authorities might consider buying a smaller vessel for the proposed run or whether, in fact, the whole project may have been dropped. The cancellation of the return of VACATIONLAND is good news for fans of the steam railroad carferry CHIEF WAWATAM. State officials had proposed laying tracks on the main deck of VACATIONLAND and using her to replace the CHIEF during periods when she was not needed on the passenger route to Manitoulin Island.

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