Mr. R. Lowery, Member:

The author is to be congratulated for the amount of effort he has put into this paper which will, no doubt, become one of the major historical references for a type of vessel which is, without doubt, shortly to become extinct.

Certain features of the paper of special interest to this discusser are commented on as follows.

The author states that cruiser sterns have been used to advantage in both single- and twin-screw ships.

Actually the cruiser-stern type, in association with a shovel type cut up, has been used almost exclusively in the more recently constructed vessels which have all been twin-screw Diesel propelled.

The section shown for the Franquelin is generally typical of the canaller; this arrangement allowing a much wider tank top in the engine room and enabling twin-screw machinery to be situated well aft. This has resulted in an appreciable shortening of machinery spaces; for example, the latest steam-driven oil-fired vessels have an engine room length, including bunkers, of about 60 ft from the AP, whereas the latest Canada Steamship Lines Canaller, the Iroquois, has the machinery and bunkers contained in a length of 38 ft from the AP. This saving of 22 ft in engine-room length which is directly added to the cargo space is obviously of the utmost importance in ships only 259 ft in length.

The Diesel-driven vessels are immeasurably better than their steam-driven counterparts from a deadweight, cubic, and operating-expense point of view. Not only are the fuel costs very much less, the deadweight is more and the number of crew required is reduced.

The results on the modern Diesel-driven canaller are quite remarkable; the Iroquois for example has a deadweight displacement ratio at 14 ft draft of about 0.75 and at maximum draft of about 0.81, and it must be admitted these are very good figures for such small self-propelled vessels.

Almost all recent vessels have skegs generally in line with the propellers and since this shape of stern encourages bottom flow rather than waterline flow, the skegs in conjunction with twin rudders give excellent maneuvering and steering qualities.

As the author points out, apart from one or two isolated instances, canallers have all been steamdriven and owners have been surprisingly reluctant to adopt Diesel machinery. For example, the first seven canallers built in the immediate postwar era were all steam-propelled and the first postwar canaller with Diesel propulsion was not constructed until 1950.

Shipowners, although they may learn somewhat slowly, certainly embrace an idea once it is sold and, since 1950, all new canallers have been Diesel-propelled, the total being nine already delivered and six in course of construction.

In dealing with mooring arrangements, the author refers to the Port Colborne fairlead and describes the fairlead. This piece of apparatus may be well known to the members of the Society, but I personally had not seen it until I came to Canada and I feel that it is not only an absolute necessity for canalling but it is also a very useful fairlead for many shipping operations.

I believe the fairlead was originally designed and made by a United States company called Oldman Boiler Works of Buffalo, the Canadian manufacturer being the Port Colborne Iron Works.

Great care must be taken in the choice of mooring winches for canalling operations. If steam-driven the problem is not very difficult, but if deck auxiliaries are electric then large vessels require patent automatic tensioning winches if wires are not to be broken when the ship surges away from a dock wall while the mooring line is being taken in at high speed under light load and it is essential that the winches will overrun when tension in excess of the safe load on the wire is reached.

Such winches are also invaluable when loading or discharging ore, since the winches will automatically retain the preset tension regardless of the changing draft of the vessel.

Recent Diesel-driven small canal-size vessels do not have automatic tensioning winches but they are equipped with electric winches capable of overrun under excessive load.

In connection with hull structure with which the author deals, one can hardly imagine more suitable vessels for electric welding than these canallers which have more than 75 per cent parallel body. As a matter of interest, the most recent welded canallers produced by Davie and Canadian Shipbuilding and Engineering shipyards have all cant frames forward, since it is believed that this system not only simplifies construction but also greatly increases the strength of the ship forward.

The author appears to infer that the first all-welded canaller was the Franquelin, but I clearly remember that the first such vessel was the Peter G. Campbell, built in Britain in the Spring of 1933 and towed across the Atlantic. This vessel was the largest all-welded vessel constructed in Europe at the time of building and created a great deal of interest. It is still in operation, its present name being Rivershell.

The attitude of certain naval architects towards welding at that time is typified by one of the comments on a technical paper read regarding the Peter G. Campbell. One of Britain's leading naval architects stated, "It will, however, be useless to build electrically welded ships however cheaply or efficiently unless passengers and crews are prepared to sail in them, therefore, I desire to put on record this appreciation of the men who crossed the Atlantic as the crew of the Peter G. Campbell.

I was also interested in reading the author's comments that the turret-type vessels which one sees on the canals were actually built to escape tonnage dues and were for service between the Maritimes and Montreal. They are now employed almost exclusively on the Great Lakes where there are no tonnage dues and so the whole purpose of the original concept is ineffective.

It would appear that Table 4 does not relate entirely to what we have been calling canal-type vessels; the table also must include a large number of small craft such as yachts, pleasure craft etc., since it will be observed that the average gross tonnage is only about 850 tons, and the average loaded cargo brought down from the Lakes appears to be only some 1300 tons. Both of these figures, of course, are considerably less than averages which actually apply to "bona fide" canal-type vessels.

In looking at this table I would also suggest that figures have been omitted on the item "Other Agricultural Products" since the quoted figures "up to lakes" and "down from lakes" do not correspond with the total shown.

The author pointed out that the season for the canal system is usually 15 to 20 days shorter than that on the Upper Lakes and at this time it might be noted that the Upper Lakes have generally a 20 to 30 days longer season than the effective deepsea shipping season into Montreal. This will be a very important factor in any consideration whereby the majority of Great Lakes trade is to be carried by ocean-going bulk freighters. For example, this year some 35 million bushels of grain were carried from the head of the Lakes by the Canadian fleet alone before Montreal Harbor opened.

I am also indebted to the author for informing me that the Canada Steamship Lines vessel Mapleheath which is now steam-driven was originally the Toiler and was the first Diesel-powered vessel to cross the Atlantic under her own power.

In closing I would, with respect, suggest that the author recheck with the companies who have supplied him with the information contained in the tabulation of "Owners and Canallers." This tabulation, when officially printed in the Transactions, will certainly be referred to many times by Canadians and I feel it is essential that the information be accurate. It is, however, quite evident that many of the figures are not accurate. For example the Hall Corporation vessels quoted are vessels I happen to know quite well and the deadweights quoted are for drafts which are far in excess of 14 ft. Some of the vessels actually appear to have deadweights quoted which exceed their displacement at 14-ft draft.

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This paper was presented at a meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and is reproduced with permission.