In the past few months, our lake shipbuilders have stopped crying the blues over a lack of business and right now they are chortling over the orderbooks. On both sides of the border, the yards are busy and will be so for quite a while to come. Before you get too carried away with enthusiasm, however, cast your eye on the following news item.

"The shipyards of the Great Lakes have 71 vessels under construction for 1907 delivery, of which 45 are bulk carriers, 4 are passenger steamers, 4 are package freighters, 5 tugs, 2 dredges, 2 carferries, 5 scows, 3 hopper barges and one quarantine steamer. Of these 45 bulk freighters, to which the greatest interest attaches because the ore trade is the dominant trade on the lakes, 30 are building in the yards of American Shipbuilding, 9 by Great Lakes Engineering Works, 3 by Toledo Shipbuilding, 2 by Collingwood Shipbuilding Co. and one by the Canadian Shipbuilding Co."

Our yards will have to go some to equal that list of orders. By the way, how many readers will be able to identify the four passenger vessels on the ways during the early part of 1907?

The quotation was taken from the January 3, 1907, issue of the "Marine Review," a Cleveland journal.

Return to Home Port or Toronto Marine Historical Society's Scanner

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