If you’ve followed this blog since the outset over two years ago, you know something about the Canal Society’s collections, such items as photos, maps, other documents, and of course one huge vessel in a park, Lois McClure in Port Byron. Recently CSNY discovered a long-lost barge it owned, Oil Transfer Tanker No. 31. What follows are some photos of the launch of the 1194 GT No. 31 in November 1949 . The barge was later renamed Trader II.

I count over 20 people in this image of the barge at Matton Shipyard.

A large number of workers bearing hammers appear here as well.

Hammer in the wedges and No. 31 slides off the ways and into the Hudson.

Of course, the No. 31 owned by CSNY is a seven-foot model of the barge. The model had been lost from the CSNY records since the 1960s. It was in fact at the Wayne County Museum, and they had sent it out for repairs. Roger Hotel [below]of Macedon NY was doing the repairs, building a new plexiglass case.

Label above notwithstanding, CSNY correspondence about the model indicates the hull was built about 1923 for tank tests. In 1949 it was finished, accounting for the date of the label above.

Roger Hotel will supervise the return of the model to Port Byron once repairs and case are complete. Details will be forthcoming.

Many thanks to Craig Williams for photos and information. I’d love to know where the model was used in tank tests back when it was first built in the 1920s and whether the model hull itself was modified in 1949.