I couldn't find much on Tree line Navigation Co., so I asked Great Lakes shipping expert and author Skip Gillham what he had on the topic;
Off the top, I know they sold their ships to CSL and Teakbay was the last of their vessels on the lakes but I am aware of an Ashbay, Birchbay, Elmbay, Pinebay, Oakbay, Maplebay, Poplarbay and Sprucebay.
Most were W.W.I. coastal ships built in France and Tree Line/Bay Line had a contract to carry grain for Oglivie Mills and they also hauled some package freight. Teakbay was the only one built for their service.
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This from an unpublished manuscript on Transit Tankers
TRANSLAKE (C150833) followed a similar path to the Transit Tankers fleet as the JOAN VIRGINIA and TRANSRIVER. All were built in France and later converted into a liquid cargo tanker after work overseas and on the Great Lakes as a bulk carrier.
Originally, TRANSLAKE was the bulk carrier PEINTRE (Painter). It was built as Hull 11 by Soc. Aciens Etarb Henri Satre at Aries-sur-Rhone, France, in 1921. The vessel was 228 feet, 6 inches long, 34 feet, 3 inches wide and 12 feet, 7 inches in depth. Tonnage was registered at 1,065 gross and 588 net. Two, triple expansion engines of 350 horsepower apiece, measured 13 3/8 – 19 ¾ - 31 ½ x 16 ½ and provided a speed of 7 knots. Steam was produced in two scotch boilers that were 9 feet, 8 inches by 11 feet, 6 inches.
PEINTRE operated in coastal trades for the Government of France and was renamed BIESSARD later in 1921. It came to the Great Lakes in 1923 for the Poplarbay Steamship Company. The latter, part of the Bay Line Navigation Company, had the ship reregistered in Canada and it was not calculated at 1,263 gross tons and 664 net tons. Renamed POPLARBAY, the ship had three holds and three hatches and was given new pilothouses for the inland service.
POPLARBAY usually carried grain from Fort William to the Ogilvie Flour Mill at Montreal. It also handled sugar, coal and pulpwood on demand and, by about 1928, it was used in regular package freight service on the upbound leg through the lakes. It came under the Tree Line Navigation Company in 1924 when the original name of the fleet was being challenged by the Bay Steamship Company Ltd. of the Hudson Bay Company
Transit Tankers purchased this vessel in 1936 and had it rebuilt at the Muir Bros. shipyard in Port Dalhousie. It returned to service as TRANSLAKE and but the registered tonnage was unchanged. It could now carry 12,500 barrels of oil or 1,450 tons deadweight.
Oil products were not the only cargoes. On May 18, 1937, TRANSLAKE arrived at Toronto with a shipment of molasses for Gooderam &Worts, an area distiller. The discharge proved to be slow as the cargo had to be kept warm enough to flow.
On November 21, 1940, TRANSLAKE and fleetmate TRANSITER were in a collision north of Bridge 13 of the Welland Canal but, fortunately, damage was minor.
The results were much more severe when TRANSLAKE, loaded with a cargo of crude oil and upbound in the St. Lawrence canals, was in a collision with the downbound freighter MILVERTON loaded with coal. TRANSLAKE got caught in the current and veered to port across the channel as MILVERTON approached. The accident on September 24, 1947, occurred three miles west of Morrisburg, Ontario, with devastating results.
MILVERTON had no way to avoid the collision and hit the tanker amidships. The fuel tanks ruptured on the former and the oil ignited resulting in an inferno that gutted the vessel and claimed eleven lives. MILVERTON drifted downstream, went aground and broke in tow. But both ships were eventually salvaged and repaired. TRANSLAKE was towed to Montreal while MILVERTON went to Port Weller Dry Docks after being refloated in 1948.
On August 30, 1950, TRANSLAKE made news departing Humberstone, Ontario, with 50 tons of bagged flour on deck. It marked the first time that a Canadian tankers had carried a deckload along with a liquid cargo in the tanks.
Like most of the company ships, TRANSLAKE moved to a subsidiary during its career and, from 1953 to 1962, was operated by Canadian coastwise carriers. However, in later years, from about 1958 to 1962, it was idle at Cascades, Quebec.
Foundation Maritime Ltd. purchased this vessel in 1962 and it was towed to Halifax. There the cabin was removed and it became a barge. Renamed HALFUELER, it operated as a bunkering ship and carried fuel supplies to power generating stations in the Halifax area. The vessel broke loose while under tow on January 1, 1965, and went aground at Lawler’s Island, Halifax.
The ship was retired from Halifax service in 1969 and eventually laid up at Baie Comeau, Quebec. It was sold to Marine Industries Ltd. and towed to Sorel, Quebec. Renamed M.I.L. FUELER, the ship saw service providing fuel for the various vessels involved in the North Traverse Dredging project on the St. Lawrence. When this was completed, the ship was idle again at Sorel. Following a sale to Paul E. Caron, it was towed to Louiseville, Quebec, and laid up there. It was still at that location in 1980 but was gone by 1981. It is believed that the hull was cut up for scrap by Sidbec Feruni Inc., and Canadian registry was finally closed in 1982.
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Same source
TRANSRIVER (C150834) was built by Societe Anonyme de Travaux Dyle & Bacalan as their Hull 1 at Bordeaux, France. It was completed as GREEUR in 1920 and measured 229 feet, 6 inches long, 34 feet wide and 14 feet, 9 inches in depth. Tonnage was registered at 1,065 gross and 588 net.
Two, triple expansion engines of 350 horsepower, each measured 12-20-31½ x
16½ provided power and a service speed of 7 knots. Two scotch boilers, 9 feet, 8 inches by 11 feet, 6 inches, were coal-fired and the ship went to work in coastal trades for the Government of France.
In 1921, the vessel was transferred to Soc. Anon. De Nav. “Les Armateurs Francais”, and was renamed SOTTEVILLE in 1922.
Like the sisterships, it worked overseas and then came to the Great Lakes in 1923 for a division of the Bay Line Steamships Ltd. Renamed MAPLEBAY, it was owned by the Maplebay Steamship Company but management changed to the Tree Line Navigation Company in 1924. It was reregistered at 1,238 gross tons and 654 net tons.
MAPLEBAY rescued the crew of thew wooden steamer SENATOR DERBYSHIRE which was on fire in Lake Ontario on October 11, 1924. The latter was a total loss.
While grain and freight were the main cargoes, MAPLEBAY arrived at Sarnia on May 3, 1933, with 152 tons of sheet steel from Dominion Allow Steel. It was the fist of 15,000 tons from Great Britain due to a new trade agreement between that country and Canada.
After a sale to Tankeroil Ltd., part of Transit Tankers, in 1937, this ship was rebuilt as a petroleum carrier by Les Chantiers Manseau Ltee. at Sorel. It as also converted to burn oil rather than coal. One of the earliest cargoeswas molasses which was delivered to Toronto on July 8, 1937.
In April 1938, TRANSRIVER was beached at Collins Landing in a successful effort to avoid a collision. On board were 13,000 barrels of gasoline but the only hull damage was a gash to the forepeak. This was repaired at Kingston.
TRANSRIVER operated on the lakes and St. Lawrence until 1958 when it was laid up at Cascades. The ship’s last trip was only a short tow to Montreal where the hull was broken up for scrap by M. Lacombe in 1963-64.
