Sure sign of spring: arrival of first boat at Calcite
by Peter Jakey—Managing Editor
A sure sign of spring is the arrival of the first boat into the Port of Calcite, even though spring looked more like the dead of winter over the weekend.
The Philip R. Clarke arrived at the south dock Saturday around noon under deceiving, bright sunshine.
The temperature at Carmeuse Lime & Stone was 19 degrees Fahrenheit with lots of snow on the ground from a week’s worth of storms. It may have been 19, but it felt much colder with strong winds.
The weather did not make it any easier to load the 767-foot vessel, built in 1952 by the American Shipbuilding Company in Lorain, Ohio. It seems appropriate that she was christened on a blustery November day in 1951.
According to plant manager John Abbitt, a wench broke on the Clarke when she arrived to begin the problems, but then a transformer went down in the quarry about mid-afternoon that cut the power and brought the loading process to a quick halt.
“It was totally unrelated to the boat,” said Abbitt. “It was just a coincidental thing, so our electricians had to get that going.”
Carmeuse crews were not able to start loading until about 8 p.m.
“We had some water issues, whi
Additionally, bulldozers were used to break up the stone on the surge pile that was froze together.
“All and all, it went well – better than expected,” said Abbitt. “The employees did a great job.”
The Clarke was eventually loaded with 25,000 tons of 1-by-2-inch stone by 3 p.m. and then it was off to U.S. Steel, Gary Works in Gary, Indiana.
The next boat was the Joseph H. Thompson, which was loaded by Tuesday and ready for its trip to Ashtabula, Ohio. “It was going much smoother,” said Abbitt.
And it is supposed to get much warmer by the weekend.