by Fred Sankoff

At the foot of Jarvis Street in Toronto is located the unloading dock and refinery of the Canada & Dominion Sugar Company Limited, which is part of the Tate and Lyle Group, From all the sugar growing countries of the world come ships with their bulk cargoes destined for the "Redpath" refineries. In most cases, part cargoes are brought to Toronto as the vessels are generally of the 15000 DWT size or larger; hence, when fully loaded they are unable to transit the Seaway. Consequently, sugar is unloaded at Montreal to enable the ship to proceed to Toronto. After unloading in Toronto which takes from five days to a week, the usual procedure is for a fixture of grain, generally from a Lake Superior port.

The trend has been a rush at the opening of navigation season as was the case in 1970, with the arrival of record cargoes with the large bulk carriers, ANDWI, and FEDERAL SCHELDE, two of the largest ships to navigate the Seaway. During the months of June and July, not a vessel could be seen at the sugar dock but towards the latter part of August activity resumed with the arrival of SYRIE, a British built SD-14, then in rapid succession came the Strick Liners, REGISTAN and SERBISTAN, from Bombay, to be followed by the ALEXANDER VOYAZIDES. The GARDENIA was a rather sorry sight covered with rust from stem to stern, a product of Readhead's built as the APOLLON in 1957. However, her present owners in Famagusta must care little for appearances. The KHIAN SEA, a "Freedom" was a visitor, as was the SHEAF CREST, a Doxford & Sunderland liberty replacement, arrived with a cargo from Australia, then refused to leave Toronto due to engine problems, which also plagued her in the Welland Canal.

An interesting arrival also from Australia was the FJELLANGER, a large bulk carrier in the fleet of Westfal-Larsen, equipped with Munck unloaders. Normally this vessel is used to the Pacific West coast in the lumber trade in the Star Bulk group. The NADINE, with a part cargo in just two of her six holds, was rather slow in unloading due to weather conditions. While she was on berth, the MARINA. another Greek registered vessel arrived and waited patiently for her turn, meanwhile belching out great "gobs" of black smoke. On December 1st, she cleared Toronto for Duluth but not before one of the engineers turned the wrong valve to transfer oil bunkers from one tank to another and instead the oil was transferred into Toronto Harbour. What took place between the Chief Engineer and the Captain is highly censored; however, they were able to clear the port after posting a bond. She was a very interesting ship, being the ex-Eastern ARGOSY of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Limited of London and Hong Kong,

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Reproduced for the Web with the permission of the Toronto Marine Historical Society.