Wishbone Fleet, The by Daniel C. McCormick George Hall Corporation Soft Cover

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A Short History and Fleet List Pertaining to the Marine Operations of the George Hall Corporation (Shipping) 1969 Limited

Soft Cover

By Daniel C. McCormick

126 pages

There are shipping companies which boast larger fleet rosters yet none of these generates a similar feeling among shiplovers along the St. Lawrence or around the Great Lakes and certainly no other St. Lawrence River shipping firm can trace its ancestry to the mid-nineteenth century. The writer's interest in "the Hall boats" dates from early adolescence, and has continued unabated to the present. There was invariably a Hall canaller in evidence on the pre-Seaway canals of the St. Lawrence - slipping into Lock 15 at Cornwall, making the bend above Lock 19, ghosting past the grandeur of the Long Sault Rapids below Lock 21, or inching away from the old St. Regis dock at Waddington to the accompanying hiss and clatter of steam winches. In bad times, when other ships of other lines went to the wall, Hall ships continued to sail. It was these ships that seemed most representative of the "St. Lawrence River canaller", that ubiquitous flat-bottomed, shallow draft, dry cargo carrier which evolved between the 1880's and the 1950's.

The fact that the Hall Corporation has changed its image in recent years through the addition of lakers and tankers to its fleet does not detract from the principal point. The line's reputation for service was built by the canal lers. The new maximum lakers and specialized tankers which have now come to the fore will set their own records, become the object of interest to the ship watchers and, ere too long, completely replace the little ships we knew so well.

Some readers may find it odd that so many ships did end their days in disaster. The serious marine historian is fully cognizant of the vagaries of nature, and of the effect they have on the waters of the earth. By virtue of this knowledge, he is often saddened but seldom unable to account for the loss. He knows that the most modern navigational aids and electronic devices are, after all, mechanical contrivances subject to malfunction or total failure on occasion. Further, the knowledgeable realize the destructive potential of a storm, be it on the high seas or our inland seas. That these ships are able to stand up under the poundings to which they are subjected is often a miracle in itself, and a credit to their designers, builders and the crews who sail them.

Ships that are expected to deliver, on time, in any weather, must therefore take more of the risk assigned. The Hall fleet has built its reputation on this premise. It is the Hall ships which are called on to move petroleum products to the Far North, where miscalulation in an ice field could prove fatal to ship and crew. It is the Hall ships that move the steel rails and railroad cars, huge "Eucs" and other earth moving giants, on out in the Gulf, often in heavy weather. It is the Hall ships which often and often are the very last to clear the Seaway system at season's end, making that one last run to the Lakehead for grain, or that final dash to St. John's or Halifax, before winter lay up. Hall customers have come to expect this service. And the Hall fleet continues to provide it.

To the marine historian, this work may be considered of some value for the points, hitherto unrecorded, contained in the fleet list. The Northern New Yorker, familiar since childhood with "the Hall boats" and the Augsbury family, may also find a point or two to titilate his interest.

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