And a Special Visitor

The next ship was a complete surprise.

 The Empire Sandy was born in 1943 as the Empire Sandy and was built by Clelands Ltd. in Willington Quay on Tyne.  She was built as a deep sea tugboat and did salvage work as part of the Battle of the Atlantic.  She served all the way to the Bay of Bengal.

 After the war, she was sold to Risdon Beasley to do rescue tug work.  At this time, she was known as the Ashford.

 In 1952, she was sold to the Great Lakes Paper company and made her way to the Great Lakes.  She was named the Chris M at this time.  She was hauling timber rafts.

 In the 1970s, she was going to be sold for scrap but a company called Nautical Adventures bought her.

 She was converted to a three masted schooner in 1979 and she was given her original name back.

 She is homeported in Thunder Bay.

 While she looks like she was under sail, I think this was just for looks.  It did look cool though.

And it was nice to see a ship that at least had the appearance of being under sail.