Crowley Establishing Flow of Relief Cargo Into Haiti

Crowley Maritime Corporation, working under contract with the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), is unloading Haiti relief cargo in Rio Haina, Dominican Republic, today. Fifty six of the 68 20-foot containers of water and meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) will be trucked across the border into Haiti.

The remaining 12 loads aboard the container ship Macajama will be transported by water to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and will be offloaded in an experimental lightering operation and delivered across a beach on Friday. If successful, future shipments could be made directly to Port-au-Prince.

The Crowley plan calls for the Macajama to anchor offshore near the port’s damaged south pier and near the exposed beach. Using a shipboard crane on the Macajama, the 12 remaining containers would be lowered onto a smaller vessel operated by G&G Shipping and delivered across the beach on wheels.

A team from Crowley’s TITAN Salvage subsidiary surveyed the port area Monday and determined that such an operation was possible. They also determined that it would be possible to establish a temporary docking structure on the beach using a Crowley 400-foot-long by 100-foot-wide flat deck barge. Crowley is mobilizing such a barge (the 410) and a crane from Orange, Texas, that could be used for cargo discharge, and plans to have both on the scene in Port-au-Prince on or about Feb. 2.