Despite challenges and obstacles ... 

Shipping industry moved quickly to assist Haiti

2010, January 30: The shipping industry moved quickly to assist the Haitian people in their hour of need. The CSA’s response came within the first hours of the tragedy and subsequently a number of shipping lines, including Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, announced initiatives to assist, even though Port-au-Prince had lost the services of its main port.

However, precisely because the port facilities were down, the efforts of the shipping industry were hampered. This forced a number of lines to discontinue services.

In two weeks however, even with the efforts still continuing to find missing persons, SeaFreight Line announced resumption of service to Port au Prince, but warned that the situation had imposed restrictions on its services there.

Crowley Maritime Corp successfully discharged twelve 20-ft containers of relief supplies across a beach in Port-au-Prince, in an experimental lightering operation. The success of this operation, which involved lifting the containers from a Crowley container ship anchored in the harbour to a smaller, shallow-draft landing vessel for transport and discharge over the beach, paved the way for container shipments directly into Port-au-Prince.

The Crowley container ship Marcajama, which offloaded the containers, returned to Port Everglades to load more relief cargo. The ship will discharge containers via the proven lightering method utilising two shuttle vessels.

Crowley is mobilizing two 400ft-long, 100ft-wide flat deck barges, along with two Manitowoc 230-ton crawler cranes that will be brought into Port-au-Prince to serve as a makeshift dock for future cargo operations. The first barge and crane should arrive in Haiti on or about February 4. The second deck barge is being outfitted in Lake Charles (LA) and is expected to arrive by the middle of February.

Seaboard Marine also resumed vessel calls to Haiti as of January 27 with the M/V Seaboard Sun, a ro-ro vessel with a deadweight capacity of 7,748 tons, using the dock facility at Lafiteau. Lafiteau is less than ten miles from Port-au-Prince and has clear roads to the main part of the city. Local personnel are currently repairing and securing the dock and facilities at Lafiteau.

Due to damage at its office in downtown Port-au-Prince, Seaboard relocated a few blocks nearby and opened for business on January 25. Fortunately, the container terminal, Maritime Logistics of Haiti, that Seaboard Marine utilizes near the Port of Port-au-Prince suffered only minimal damage and re-opened on Friday, January 22. This terminal will support the cargo that will be discharged from Lafiteau.

 M/V Seaboard Sun

Meanwhile, APM offered two box ships to handle emergency aid for Haiti. The UN carefully considered APM’s offer but, according to the company, eventually decided that the ravaged harbour in capital Port-au-Prince could not cope with such large ships. So APM has assisted in other ways, by donating containers to Haiti to be used as temporary housing and offices, said Regnell, adding that APM has also given free handling of aid at all APM terminals.

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