She had sat tied to her berth for near 2 years, her boilers cold, her cargo holds empty save for the odd rat scrounging for food, the lines holding her creaking as she moved with the gentles swells that came and went. her years of hauling cargo now gone for one reason or the other. The scrap man had been aboard and gone through her with a fine tooth comb detailing and listing every nut, bolt and any other item that could be salvaged from her for money. They arrived one foggy day, 3 tugs, cast bridle tows on her and clamored aboard doing what was needed to get her ready for her final voyage to some distant breakers yard. The hours went the work was done and the men left her save for the " ship riders" the 3 or 4 souls who would ride the dead ship to make sure that all went according to plan. It was at noon that day that her lines were cast off and the lead tug growled, black smoke issued from her stack and her prop dug hard into the water ever so slowly moving the big ship from her long time berth. A second tug was lashed to her stern her bow away from the big ship as the lead tug pulled her from the berth and into the channel that would eventually take them to deep & open water. The tug on the stern was facing away from the big ship as " dead tows " can under some conditions have minds of their own. The stern tug would run with her engines in reverse as the lead tug pulled on the hawser moving her along and just in case she decided to break her hawser, or sheer away from the tow, the stern tug could in and instant reverse engines and using her small but incredibly powerful motor haul her back on course and out of harms way. Once open water was made, the stern tug would cast off and reposition hers self in line with the vessel and the tow would proceed in a orderly fashion to her final destination, in this case to Quebec City to await the larger ocean going tugs who would take her lines and once again cast her off and make for the distant of India where the brutal work of reducing her to chunks of metal would begin. Every type of metal would be taken from her, ferrous , non- ferrous, copper, brass, cast iron all taken weighed, measured and sold on the market so that you one bright sunny day could walk into a Toyota sales room and buy that shiny new car, or perhaps make that purchase of a new fridge, or maybe buy that new furnace to replace the old one that didn't keep you warm this past winter, or even better that new set of clubs you've been dying for to try out o the local green ........winks...............thanks for the peek