Arctic Directory: Lightering operation successful in Haiti

Crowley Maritime Corp. said Jan. 22 that, working under contract with the U.S.

Transportation Command, it successfully discharged 12 20-foot containers of relief supplies across a beach in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in an experimental lightering operation. The success of this operation, which involved lifting the containers from a Crowley container ship anchored in the harbor to a smaller, shallow-draft landing vessel for transport and discharge over the beach, paves the way for container shipments directly into Port-au-Prince later in the month. “Today’s operation was an important milestone in re-establishing direct container shipments into the heavily damaged port,” said John Hourihan, Crowley’s senior vice president and general manager of Latin America services. “The port survey conducted Monday by a team from our TITAN Salvage subsidiary was spot-on in terms of identifying a suitable location in the port where we could safely discharge the cargo.” For more information visit www.crowley.com.