HEAVY METAL
Vince Del Duca, right, of Romeo Machine Shop, assists an Iaconna Contracting driver, left, with an anchor salvaged from the freighter Fort Chambly, which was donated to the Windsor Port Authority on Wednesday.
A local machine shop has donated several historic marine artifacts to the Port of Windsor for preservation and safekeeping.
The objects provided by Romeo Machine Shop include an eight-tonne anchor from the Fort Chambly, the last package freighter belonging to Canada Steamship Lines. It caught fire on Dec. 6, 1988, and never operated again.
Other artifacts include a ship's compass housing, some large bollards, a ship's searchlight and life rings from the Stadacona, a decommissioned CSL freighter.
The company donated the objects after closing in October with the retirement of owners Vincent and Joseph Del Duca.
“Romeo Machine wanted to see the artifacts and their company's contribution to shipping on the Great Lakes be preserved for future generations,” the Windsor Port Authority said Wednesday in a media release.
The artifacts come from the Matt Shipyard, a sister company of Romeo Machine Shop. The shipyard, which opened in 1929, was dedicated to servicing and repairing ships that ran on the Great Lakes.
Romeo Machine Shop, also established in 1929, made its name doing large and small repairs on ships, including trunnions, unloading booms, elevators and other maintenance. They also restored hull damage caused by normal wear and occasional collisions.
Iaconna Contracting will store the donated items in its shop over the winter before relocating them. The objects will be restored and moved to Prosperity Place and Queen's Dock, the Port of Windsor's outdoor marine museums, in the summer of 2021.
The Windsor Port Authority is one of 17 national ports established to promote the growth, competitiveness and prosperity of Canada's economy.
The port is Ontario's third largest. It annually receives more than 600 ships delivering five million tonnes of aggregate, salt, steel and grain to Windsor-essex, ports across the Great Lakes and into Europe.