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HMCS Loganville - Tender to HMCS Cataraqui

by John MacFarlane 2012

HMCS Loganville

HMCS Loganville 1948 (Photo MacFarlane collection

HMCS Loganville was a small Ville-class tug (YTS–589) built by Russell Brothers in Owen Sound Ontario. (40’ x 10.5’ x 5’) She was powered by a Cummins 6-cylinder diesel marine engine rated at 150hp at 1,800rpm. She was laid down on 10/10/1944 and commissioned 13-12-1944. Named for Loganville New Brunswick, her first assignment was at Sydney Nova Scotia in 1944.

In 1948 she was assigned to HMCS Cataraqui (the naval reserve division at Kingston Ontario) as a tender. Her voyage from the Maritimes took several weeks. Her arrival was a cause for celebration by members of the ship's company anticipated hands–on experience. It is not clear if she was still commissioned but as can be seen in the images she is flying the White Ensign and the original image is annotated as "HMCS Loganville".

HMCS Loganville

HMCS Loganville 1948 (Photo MacFarlane collection

In 1956 she experienced an accident and sank in 10’ of water in the Catarqui River. On November 30, 1956 she was raised by a derrick scow of the Canadian Dredge & Dry Dock Company. Being small enough she was lifted out of the water and placed on the scow for transport to the Company's dock for survey of damage.

Editor's Note:

Loganville

A vessel widely thought to be the Loganville turned out to be the Pepperville pictured here in 2011 at Kingston Ontario. (Photo copyright and used by permission of the John Duerkop collection.)

After this article was published it generated considerable interest and I heard from a number of readers speculating on the ultimate fate of the Loganville.

One of our contributors, John Duerkop (of Kingston Ontario), sent us an image of a tug that many purported to be the Loganville he took in Anglin Bay at Kingston taken 15 June 2012. He noted that she has been in the Bay for at least three years, except for a period when she was off the ferry pier at Marysville ON on Wolfe Island in the summer of 2011 or the summer before. He does not know her current owner.

That vessel was reportedly still afloat, and owned by Dan Simpson, as a yacht as late as 2009 (licenced #44E5253). Simpson replaced her original Cummins diesel c2005 with an engine salvaged from one of the Maid of the Mist vessels at Niagara Falls.

Duerkop spoke with Tom Wroe, the President of MetalCraft Marine in Kingston and he was told that Wroe did not think that the tug was the Loganville. Steve Alford, who works for MetalCraft told Duerkop that the LOGANVILLE and the Plainsville were both tenders at HMCS Catarqui into the 1970s. Chris Varley, who is Cataraqui’s historian, on the other hand told Duerkop that he had never heard of the Plainsville. He is checking further to see what he can find on the fate of the Loganville and if there are any references in the records to the Plainsville.

John Duerkop writes: "Tom Wroe put me in touch with David Parker who is the owner of the tug in the photo. Here is what he sent me about her: "She was built in 1947 (after the war) for the Ontario Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company in Fort Francis Ontario. Her original name was OM340 and she is now registered as the Pepperville. Her name was changed to Pepperville in 2006 when David Parker and his father bought her. She was one of a group of vessels built as commercial tugs by Russel Brothers (one work boat constructed before the war became the prototype and the rest were constructed after the war). OM340 never served in the navy. David lives on Wolfe Island." (Note from JD: This would explain why I had seen the Pepperville anchored there one summer)."

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