This is the time of year when Great Lakes fleets announce the appointment of officers to their ships for the coming navigation season. Thinking that some of these appointments might be of interest to our members, we are pleased to reprint them here. All previously appeared in the public press, but some of you might have missed them. Listed for each fleet are the boats that will run together with the master and chief engineer appointed to each vessel.

American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey: CLIFFORD F. HOOD - J. G. Woerpel, J. H. Rathbun; STEEL CHEMIST - G. L. Kane, Charles Spademan.

Brown and Company. Buffalo: J. J. H. BROWN - A. H. Dennis, Fred Vieau; JAMES E. McALPINE - R. H. Russell, Ray Hanel; SHASTA - N. L. Donner, Joseph Roche.

Buckeye Steamship Company, Cleveland: SIR WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN - Charles Butler, W. Knapp; HARRY WM. HOSFORD - 0. H. Keller, Ed Liberty; JOHN T. HUTCHINSON -Harold Jacobsen, Otto Nordstrom; MAGNA (barge) - J. F. Olsen, no chief; MAIA (barge) - Howard Anderson, F. Ziegler; MANILA (barge) - C. Nichol, R. Jurkovie; MARSALA (barge) - N. Beck, J. Lamielle; SIMON J. MURPHY - A. C. McLean, Jack Eskelin; JOHN SMEATON (barge) - Mitchell Johnston, Sommerfield; GEORGE STEPHENSON - A. Dupie, Thomas Hedglin; ANDREW S. UPSON - John Mier, Louis Barry.

Great Lakes Steamship Company Inc.. Cleveland: J. BURTON AYERS - F. B. Par sons, Walter Hanssen; JOHN B. COWLE - Louis J. Potvin, Fred A. Shovar; DENMARK - Daniel O'Boyle, William R. Stewart; JOHN DUNN JR. - R. J. Grekowicz, H. Otis Smith; J. F. DURSTON - Edward J. Jacobs, Ernest Potthier; FINLAND -H. L. Stewart, James C. Browne; J. H. HILLMAN JR. - Charles Gonyaw, Hugh Gangwish; CHARLES HUBBARD - William Morton, Waldemar A. Goerss; A. E. NETTLETON - Robert W. Goodwin, J. R. Goodrich; NORWAY - Bradley J. HACKETT, John H. Brunner; HURLBUT W. SMITH - Melvin M. Edwards, William Gallagher; LYMAN C. SMITH - George R. Manuel, Fred R. Antons; SWEDEN - Charles A. Sol-frank, Edward H. Schmidt; SMITH THOMPSON - L. Haugneland, James J. Nolan; HORACE S. WILKINSON - Howard Geel, Ernest Kurz.

Interstate Steamship Company (Jones & Laughlin Steel Company), Cleveland: B. F. JONES - A. L. Olsson, C. H. Cosnett; WILLIS L. KING - F. N. Watts, George Grunthaner; JAMES LAUGHLIN - H. R. Fairfield, James Hineman; THOMAS WALTERS - W. C. Humphrey, C. L. Irish.

Midland Steamship Line. Cleveland: HA2EN BUTLER - W. D. Hampton, Joseph F. Talder; JOHN W. DAVIN - P. J. McCarthy, A. M. Houston; MICHAEL GALLAGHER -H. H. Miller, J. W. Long; J. H. MACOUBREY - R. G. McGarry, Neil McDougall; W. G. POLLOCK - H. C. Maltby, Alexander Karro; EDWARD N. SAUNDERS JR. - E.H. Bennett, G. W. Kroening; CARMI A. THOMPSON - G. W. Cole, Thos. E. Sheridan.

Overlakes Freight Corp.. Detroit: CORALIA - E. A. Massman, P. A. Thibodeau; CRESCENT CITY - H. B. McColl, Delos Babb; FRED L. HEWITT - C. M. Tobin, B.J. Beauchamp; D. A. MOLONEY - J. W. Galton, C. P. Sampson; ARTHUR ORR, John Stanton, F. J. Irvin; PENOBSCOT - D. E. Tobin, A. Lesperance; SONOMA - G.W. Emig, C. T. Dalzell; SONORA - G. W. Lloyd, H. A. Lozen; SULTANA - W. J. Felley, H. A. Shaw.

Pioneer Steamship Company. Cleveland: J. S. ASHLEY - H. P. Murphy, R.D. Burt; A. A. AUGUSTUS - A. Kristiansen, Albert Holl; FRANK BILLINGS - Richard Van Epp, Willard Pallas; W. D. CALVERLEY JR. - R. Galbreath, L. Schroeder; JAMES E. FERRIS - William Schlegel, E. J. Fournier; DONALD B. GILLIES - H. W. Frilay, John Linden; CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON - Sevren 0. Nelssen, George Schroeder; W. H. McGEAN - Walter D. Weborg, Peter B. Johnson; PRICE McKINNEY -Stanley Anderson, Andrew Tenwick; JOHN S. MANUEL - Ambrose Knudson, Carl McGeehan; MARTIN MULLEN - C. F. Nelson, John Ruddock; WILLIAM A. PAINE - L. W. Smith, 0. T. Biddle; CLARENCE B. RANDALL - H. J. Scheible, Donald Swartz; JOHN STANTON - E. P. Maxim, Howard Benham; J.J. SULLIVAN - T. A. Johnson, W. L. Smith; DAVID P. THOMPSN [sic] - Harold Johnson, John Paytosh; G. A. TOMLINSON - Claire Duclon, Paul Barth; JAMES P. WALSH - A. G. Regan, K. Peterman.

Red Arrow Steamship Company. Sheboygan: JOE S. MORROW - Hans Bauer, Harry Bracher.

Reiss Steamship Company. Sheboygan: A. M. BYERS - E. C. Burke, Sylvester Palumbo; CLEMENS A. REISS - Albert Olssen, Clarence Reed; J. L. REISS - D. C. Sullivan Jr., Clarence Jackson; JOHN P. REISS - John Hoff, John Nystrom; OTTO M. REISS - Joseph LePage, Morris Gabert; PETER REISS - H. L. Radcliffe, Willard F. Meter; RICHARD J. REISS - R. 0. Frankforther, Samuel Lorenz; WILLIAM A. REISS - Howard Leach, John J. Maloney; REISS BROTHERS - M. A. Baizaire, James Nelson.

Rockport Steamship Company, Sheboygan: JOHN A. KLING - Peter Sorensen, Axel Backman; CHARLES C. WEST - Wayne Pringle, Theodore Jessen.

Schneider Transportation Company, Cleveland: WILLIAM M. CONNELLY - L.G. Austin, Michael Regan; CLETUS SCHNEIDER - Harold Todd, E. F. Peterson; PAM SCHNEIDER - M. J. Wagner, Ben Perew.

Tomlinson Fleet. Cleveland: CUYLER ADAMS, Elmer Auspsetter, J. W. Brown; BALL BROTHERS -A.M. Hansen, J. W. Scheu; JAMES DAVIDSON - A. R. Morse, J. A. Johnson; JAMES E. DAVIDSON - E. H. Cahours, Arthur M. Olson; CHARLES E. DUNLAP - A. R. MacLeod, L. I. Gallagher; MERTON E. FARR - H. R. Winkler, J. H. Majo; RUFUS P. RANNEY - E. B. Wolvin, M. J. Colbert; SIERRA - J. E. Drury, M. F. Desmond; SUMATRA - C. U. Danielson, Harvey Jewell; SYLVANIA -J. C. Taylor, R. B. Fegert; COLONEL E. M. YOUNG - E. W. Gonyaw, F. Schwarz.

Wilson Transit Company, Cleveland: CHARLES S. HEBARD - Bertram Davies, Swan Swanson; ROBERT L. IRELAND - Wm. F. Gardner, H. F. Bangs; EDWARD S. KENDRICK - J. J. Phillips, Harold Morse; A. T. KINNEY - Roy F. Woodford, Chas. Schack; E. J. KULAS - Geo. Stewart, Hans T. Meyers; JAMES MacNAUGHTON - Murdock D. McQueen, Frank Hagerty; CHARLES A. PAUL - Arnold Pedersen, John Norton; S. H. ROBBINS - Arthur J. Mausolf, Frank Hinman; FRANK E. TAPLIN - Joseph McLean, David Campbell; J. E. UPSON - Peter J. Petersen, Phillip Johnson; ROBERT B. WALLACE - Joseph Konkel, Archie Raymond; THOMAS WILSON - Henry C. Borgen, William McKenzie.

What's that you say? This list looks a bit out of date? Quite correct, for these appointments were taken from various issues of the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" dated March and April of 1945. What a change thirty-nine years can make! Of the fourteen companies mentioned, none are active in shipping come 1984, and only one has any connection with lake ships at all; RICHARD J. REISS (II), (a) ADIRONDACK (43), is still technically owned by the Reiss Steamship Company, but she has been operated by the American Steamship Company since its acquisition of the Reiss fleet in 1969.

Very few of the boats mentioned are still active, most of them having since been scrapped or converted for non-transportation uses. SYLVANIA, (a) SYLVANIA (14), (b) D. M. PHILBIN (29), and JOHN A. KLING (81), (b) LEADALE (II), are presently being dismantled at Ashtabula and Humberstone, respectively. J. J. SULLIVAN (62), (b) CLARENCE B. RANDALL (II), is at Milwaukee as a would-be storage barge (unused) and REISS BROTHERS (70), (a) WILLIAM K. FIELD (34), (c) GEORGE D. GOBLE (80), (d) ROBERT S. PIERSON (82), (e) SPRUCEGLEN, is now being used as a storage barge at Goderich. Some of the other ships now serve as docks, etc., and the hull of one even functions as a drydock.

WILLIS L. KING (53), (b) C. L. AUSTIN, and THOMAS WALTERS (53), (b) FRANK R. DENTON, last sailed for the Kinsman fleet, but neither operated in 1983, and both are lying at Buffalo, the AUSTIN allegedly sold for scrapping. JOHN T. HUTCHINSON is now in the American Steamship Company fleet, but has not operated in recent years and may soon be repowered using the stern of SAGINAW BAY. Five of the ships are now owned by Columbia Transportation, but none operated in 1983 and all are idle at Toledo; they are J. BURTON AYERS; J. H. HILLMAN JR. (74), (b) CRISPIN OGLEBAY (II); CLARENCE B. RANDALL (I)(62), (b) ASHLAND; WILLIAM A. REISS (II), (a) JOHN A. TOPPING (34), and THOMAS WILSON.

Apart from RICHARD J. REISS, only two other boats mentioned in our appointments operated in 1983. They are E. J. KULAS (II)(53), (a) WILLIAM C. ATWATER (36), (c) BEN MOREELL (I)(55), (d) THOMAS E. MILLSOP (II)(75), (e) E. J. NEWBERRY (82), (f) CEDARGLEN, which is now owned by P & H Shipping, and JAMES MacNAUGHTON (55), (b) BEN MOREELL (II)(77), (c) ALASTAIR GUTHRIE, which is now in the Kinsman fleet. GUTHRIE is not likely to sail in 1984, and this would leave CEDARGLEN and RICHARD J. REISS as the only members of our 1945 fleet sample still active in 1984.

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