If you wander down to Owen Sound Harbour to check out the ships take a close look a the vessel moored on the east harbour wall and you will see a bit of Great Lakes history.
The Canadian Transfer is truly a tale of two ships, because the vessel is in fact two different ships that have been welded together.
Skip Gillham is a marine historian and says this marriage of two vessels was completed in 1998 at a cost of several million dollars.
He says the new vessel is composed of the engine room portion of the Canadian Explorer, a 730 straight deck bulk carrier and the Hamilton Transfer, a 620 foot unloading vessel.
Gillham says the cargo hold, wheelhouse and self unloading system of the Hamilton Transfer was retained and joined to the stern section of Canadian Explorer, which is not quite as wide as the cargo hold.
He says this was the first time a bulker and self unloader were joined to create a new ship.
Gillham says the pilot house used to be on the stern section of the Canadian Explorer and that was removed and only the accommodation section remained.
He says this complex engineering job was done at the Port Weller Dry Docks over a four month period.