The Marine Superintendent (Engineering) served directly under the Traffic Manager of the Marine Division and alongside the Marine Superintendent (Hull). He was responsible for the engineering and mechanical operations of the fleet. He managed the engineers for company vessels including hiring and scheduling engineers, monitoring their performance appraisals and responding to employee grievances. He oversaw repairs to the ships' machinery and electronic equipment. He purchased mechanical equipment and parts for vessels. The Marine Superintendent (Engineering) corresponded with external contractors and consultants on the company's behalf and acted as the company's liaison and representative with regulatory agencies, governments and industry organizations. He recommended and administered company policies on occupational health and safety and environment management (i.e. environmental protection and pollution prevention initiatives) and kept the company's board of directors up-to-date on any major amendments to legislation or industry standards in these areas. While both Marine Superintendent - Hull and the Engineering - were equally responsible for initiating Occupational Health and Safety initiatives (OHS) and Environment Management initiatives (EM), the files suggest that the Hull Superintendent primarily oversaw OHS programs within the company while the Engineering Superintendent oversaw EM programs within the company.
Dieter Bachman was the Marine Superintendent (Engineering) until 1989 and was replaced by Tim Black who served from 1989 to 2002.
The majority of the files in this sub-series are personal office files of Tim Black, however there are a small number of documents and correspondence that date back to when Dieter Bachman served as the Marine Superintendent (Engineering). This series contains personnel files which include resumes of prospective engineers for the Paterson fleet, employee appraisal reports and grievance files on employees. It also contains copies of collective agreements from 1994 to 2001 with the Canadian Marine Officers Union, the Canadian Merchant Service Guild, and the Seafarer's International Union, as well as special bargaining files and notes between the N. M. Paterson & Sons Limited, the Canadian Marine Officers Union, and the Canadian Merchant Service Guild regarding the marine officers' strike in 2001 and 2002. Files related to the mechanical upkeep of the fleet include: vessel repairs and service reports, oil analysis results, engine room inventories, engine room incident reports, Lloyd's surveys and equipment test certificates, and correspondence with other companies regarding the purchase of new mechanical equipment or the repair of vessels. The Environment Management Program was initiated by the N.M. Paterson & Sons Limited in 1992 as a response to increasing federal regulations on the marine industry to protect the environment. This sub-series contains internal files on the administration of the N.M. Paterson & Sons Limited's policies regarding responses to oil spills and pollution prevention. It also includes the correspondence and minutes of meetings attended with several governments and industrial organizations. The Marine Superintendent (engineering) was a member of the National Marine Environment Protection Program, the National Exercise Program, and the Thunder Bay Remedial Action Plan to clean-up pollution along the north shore of Lake Superior.
The sub-series is comprised of a large amount of technical drawings relating to all aspects of the planning, construction, operations and maintenance of the steamers and other facilities managed by the Marine Superintendent. They are an essential component of the fonds. They document every aspect of the company's shipping operations over eight decades. This includes all technical processes used to restore steamers and machineries for shipping. The transportation of all types of grain was new for that time and required innovative engineering and operating processes. These records provide useful information to study this industrial evolution and give an overview of the use and the management of the company's vast grain holdings. These records are directly linked to textual records and have been described within the existing textual series and sub-series.
