Our thanks to all those members who wrote to say how much they enjoyed our December feature on the canaller BENMAPLE. Thanks to some further delving into the Kidd scrapbooks, we believe that we are now able to date the photo of BENMAPLE in the ice in the Lachine Canal which accompanied our feature.

We have located several brief press reports which indicate that, in late November of 1933, abnormally cold weather caused the formation of heavy ice in the St. Lawrence Canals, and particularly in the Soulanges Canal, and that the canals were officially closed to traffic shortly after November 30 that year. "Every artifice known to shipping men was brought into play when eight ships were locked through. Cargoes were lightened, charges of dynamite were set off, and some of the vessels pounded the ice with their anchors. Five steamers, PLUTO, MANISLE, DELIA, GRETA GLAD and BENMAPLE, arrived in Montreal after being locked through the Soulanges." The heavy ice visible in the BENMAPLE photo thus would tend to indicate that the view was taken after she had fought her way clear of the Soulanges and was arriving at Montreal via the Lachine Canal in late November of 1933.

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