Excerpt from The Scanner - Toronto Marine Historical Society newsletter - Scanner, v. 16, n. 5 (February 1984) - John N. Bascom, editor..
One of the most unusual incidents we have ever reported occurred on the morning of Christmas Eve, December 24th, when the tug CISCOE was lost on Lake Erie off Port Colborne. The 75-foot tug, built in 1980, was owned by Great Lakes Marine Contracting Ltd., Port Dover, and had recently been used as a pilot boat at Port Weller. Her duties concluded for the 1983 navigation season, she was upbound in the Welland Canal on December 23, en route to Port Dover for the winter. At 2:15 a.m. on the 24th, CISCOE cleared Port Colborne and, one hour later, when the tug was some thirteen kilometres out in Lake Erie, she developed engine problems and called for assistance. The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker GRIFFON was sheltering behind Long Point at the time, and she arrived alongside CISCOE at 7:20 a.m. The two-man crew was then removed from CISCOE, and GRIFFON reported that the tug capsized at 7:43 a.m., and was last observed floating upside-down, some eight kilometres from shore. Due to extreme weather conditions, CISCOE was not been seen recently, although the last report we have is that, late in December, she was still upside-down and adrift in the ice. |