by William Lafferty » March 3, 2023, 1:27 pm
Despite its name, the ore trade was never a consideration of Hall Corporation for the Orefax, it intended to be a replacement for the canaller Coalfax. Its typical routes were typical self unloader routes: coal from Sodus Point to Hamilton, Toronto, and as far east as Montréal, and stone from Marblehead and Alpena for Windsor, Kingston, Wallaceburg, and any number of similar Canadian ports. When I was a kid I saw it often at Chicago in the early 1960s carrying white clay to Sept-Îles, I think, for the paper plants there, or maybe the other way around. It was on one of these trips it ran into the gale you mention. I know it carried potash as far east as Prince Edward Island since this is what it was carrying during its explosion and grounding on 22 September 1970 near Brockville. Salvaged and brought to Hamilton, it remained there until sold as a spoils carrier to Consortium Île d'Orleans. At that point the vessel was redundant with the sleek Hallfax in service since 1962, and too underpowered, using a war-era Fairbanks, Morse Diesel from an LCM that had already seen considerable commercial use. The explosion was caused by a flamed out bearing in that engine.
Despite its name, the ore trade was never a consideration of Hall Corporation for the [I]Orefax[/I], it intended to be a replacement for the canaller [I]Coalfax[/I]. Its typical routes were typical self unloader routes: coal from Sodus Point to Hamilton, Toronto, and as far east as Montréal, and stone from Marblehead and Alpena for Windsor, Kingston, Wallaceburg, and any number of similar Canadian ports. When I was a kid I saw it often at Chicago in the early 1960s carrying white clay to Sept-Îles, I think, for the paper plants there, or maybe the other way around. It was on one of these trips it ran into the gale you mention. I know it carried potash as far east as Prince Edward Island since this is what it was carrying during its explosion and grounding on 22 September 1970 near Brockville. Salvaged and brought to Hamilton, it remained there until sold as a spoils carrier to Consortium Île d'Orleans. At that point the vessel was redundant with the sleek [I]Hallfax[/I] in service since 1962, and too underpowered, using a war-era Fairbanks, Morse Diesel from an LCM that had already seen considerable commercial use. The explosion was caused by a flamed out bearing in that engine.