The last of the three companies purchasing vessels of the former Halco fleet from the Royal Bank of Canada announced on February 29th the names that are to be given to its new ships. Some sources had speculated that Misener Shipping would give OTTERCLIFFE HALL back the name ROYALTON (II) which she had borne from 1983 until 1985 during the course of a Misener charter, but such is not the case. In fact, OTTERCLIFFE HALL will become (d) R. PETER MISENER, named for the president of Misener Holdings Ltd., while LAWRENCECLIFFE HALL will sail as (b) DAVID K. GARDINER, honouring the president of Misener Shipping. (We are not particularly fond of "people names" for ships, and we rather wish that Misener had chosen to reactivate some of the historic ship names from the company's past for these two additions to its fleet, along the lines of the names selected by the Paterson and C.S.L. fleets for the Halco vessels which they purchased.)

A February 26th report in "The Journal of Commerce" indicated that the Federal Court of Canada had found Capt. Paul Kelch of the Great Lakes Towing Company's tug OHIO primarily at fault for an accident late in the 1980 season. Involved in the accident was the barge (and former tinstack steamer) PETER A. B. WIDENER, owned by North Central Maritime, Duluth, which was being taken to Montreal with a load of grain. OHIO lost control of the WIDENER in the current in Montreal harbour, and she struck the wine tanker RHONE, which was unloading at a nearby dock. Readers will recall that the WIDENER later was towed back into the lakes and lay idle until being sold for scrap during the 1986 season. She was towed down to Lauzon late in 1986 and was sent to overseas breakers during the summer of 1987.

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