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at one time all CSL selfunloaders had black hulls, starightdeckers had red {iron ore} hulls and cement carriers grey. seemed logical to me but some rocket scietist in the office thought not. dont even get me on the new and improved funnel colours. enough said!

All the Canada Steamship Lines self-unloaders had black hulls until the mid-1990s.

Why the colour black? Well, most of the trade in the early years that CSL operated self-unloaders was in the coal trade. It was in the mid-1960s that they started carrying iron ore pellets to Stelco from Duluth, Marquette and Taconite Harbor.

The picture in Great Lakes History today shows the CSL laker with a black hull instead of red. Is this just an example of black and white film or was she really black hulled? If so why?