Re: Samual Mitchell

From: William Lafferty
Location: here
Email:
Remote Name: 204.210.244.62
Date: 02/29/04
Time: 10:39:32 PM

Comments

Both. She served as a storage barge during the construction of the Poe Lock at the Soo; when a kid I took a shot of her there as such in August 1965. She then drifted to Duluth, I think, in the same capacity until sold to Selvick of SB and converted to a barge, renamed *Mel William Selviock,* to run with Penn Dixie's also converted barge *Sea Castle,* its former *John L. A. Galster.* Watching those tows traverse the North Branch of the Chicago River up to Goose Island provided a long day's shipwatching and not a few chuckles during the late '70s. She holed herself in that service while being pushed by Roen's *John Purves* in 1981 when she ran into the Peerless Cement dock near Port Huron after a wire parted between pushee and pusher. She remained at Muskegon after that idle until broken up by Canonie in 1994. I believe the *Sea Castle* is still there.