![]() “A lot of times, I’ll get on for 60 days and won’t get off because it’s just such a hassle.” The Westcott and a supplier in Cleveland are “really our only two contacts with the outside world,” he said. By the time he gets through security, calls a cab and makes it to the store, he is in danger of missing the boat. “There’s a lot of security, and nothing within walking distance,” said Mr. While looking at charts last June in the Westcott’s dispatch office, Garvie Crane, the chief engineer on the freighter Buffalo, explained that his ship usually stops only at mines to load and steel mills to unload, leaving him with just four or five hours in port. Hogan is confident that it will always be cost effective to deliver bulky, low-value cargo like coffee or paper towels by boat. But drones are expensive and small, so Mr. He recently read that Maersk, the largest container shipping company in the world, was experimenting with using drones to deliver to its ships. Hogan, sitting in front of black-and-white family photos and hockey posters in his office. Sailing two months on and one month off, “sailors on contemporary merchant ships are basically trapped,” said Mr. Twenty-four hours earlier, the captain of the Martin had called to order the nuts and coffee, knowing that they would be delivered to his ship when it passed the Westcott office, just southwest of the Ambassador Bridge on the Michigan side of the Detroit River. Two bags, filled with six cans of Planters mixed nuts and seven boxes of K-Cup coffee, were quickly tied on by the Westcott’s deck hand and hoisted aboard the freighter. Westcott II snug against the sheer steel side of the Martin, keeping pace with it.Ĭanada Steamship Lines was painted in white across the red hull, and from above the “S” in “Steamship” a man in a hard hat and red jumpsuit lowered a dirty white bucket on a black rope. Bill Redding pushed the tire-clad bow of the 45-foot J.W. The big ship slowed but did not stop, and Capt. Martin, a 739-foot freighter steaming up the Detroit River. One warm morning in late May, the mail boat chugged out to meet the Rt. Mail - and anything else a ship might need - must be delivered on the fly, while the mail boat and the freighter are moving. With freight this valuable, time costs a lot, so barring a catastrophe, boats stop only to load or unload cargo. The hundred or so freighters that make up the Westcott’s customers each carry millions of dollars’ worth of commodities like coal, iron ore, grain and limestone. ![]()
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