maritime shipping

FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: Port Corpus Christi is nation’s largest energy export gateway

A ship at Port Corpus Christi. (Photo: Port Corpus Christi)

This is the latest in a periodic series that profiles U.S. ports. While the ports have similarities, all have different histories and many focus on certain cargoes. The nation is fortunate to have ports along its three coasts, major rivers and the Great Lakes.

Overview

The Port of Corpus Christi (Port Corpus Christi) is located on the south-central coast of Texas in the western Gulf of Mexico and on the southern shores of Corpus Christi Bay. The port is 190 nautical miles southwest of the Port...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-port-corpus-christi-is-nations-largest-energy-export-gateway

FreightWaves Classics/Fallen Flags: Luckenbach Steamship Company was successful for nearly 125 years

The Edgar F. Luckenbach. (Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command)

The Luckenbach Steamship Company was a long-lived and successful U.S. shipping company. It survived two world wars, but did not survive the industry’s change to container ships…

The company was founded by Lewis Luckenbach in 1850, who began with a single tugboat in New York Harbor. Luckenbach found success by pioneering tug-and-barge transport of coal from Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk was the primary port used to ship coal from the fields and mines of Virginia and West Virginia to cities and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-luckenbach-steamship-company-was-successful-for-nearly-125-years

FreightWaves Classics: Shipping line brought fresh fruit to the Northeast in the late 1800s

Horse-drawn wagons carry bananas from the wharf. (Photo: collectorsweekly.com)

Background

No matter the time of year, you can visit a grocery store or supermarket in almost any community in the United States and find fresh fruit and vegetables from across the country and around the world. In contrast, during the late 1800s, the diets of most U.S. residents did not contain nearly as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we eat today. Also, most fruit and vegetables were consumed relatively near where they were grown. (However, refrigerated railroad freight cars began to be...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-shipping-line-brought-fresh-fruit-to-the-northeast

FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: Fenwick Island Lighthouse helped keep the Delmarva Peninsula safe

The Fenwick Island Lighthouse. (Photo: lighthousefriends.com)

As noted in an earlier FreightWaves Classics article, The 1st United States Congress met from March 4, 1789, to March 4, 1791, during the first two years of George Washington’s presidency. On August 7, 1789, that very first session of Congress approved an Act establishing and supporting lighthouses, beacons, buoys and public piers. Those first Members of Congress understood how important navigational aids and infrastructure were to the economy of the new nation. Trade with other nations was...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-fenwick-island-lighthouse-helped-keep-the-delmarva-peninsula-safe

FreightWaves Classics/Fallen Flags: American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines served the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

The SS Excalibur was renamed the USS Joseph Hewes and provided service in 1941-42. (Photo: ssmaritime.com)

There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.

Today’s FreightWaves Classics profiles another fallen flag – American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines. American Export Lines merged with Isbrandtsen Co. in 1964 to form American Export & Isbrandtsen...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-american-export-isbrandtsen-lines-served-the-atlantic-and-pacific-oceans

FreightWaves Classics: Lighthouse on Lake Erie began operations

The Erie Land Light, which had been isolated, now has neighbors. (Photo: news.uslhs.org)

On Saturday, November 6, those near the northwestern Pennsylvania city of Erie noted the 103rd anniversary of a lighthouse on Lake Erie.

The lighthouse began to operate on November 6, 1818 when lighthouse keeper John Bone lit the oil wick in the new structure for the first time. Bone was the Presque Isle Light keeper for 14 years. He, his wife and their four daughters and two sons lived in a one-story, three-room house built near the lighthouse. 

The lighthouse was constructed on a bluff that...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-lighthouse-on-lake-erie-began-operations

FreightWaves Classics/Leaders: Marcus Garvey started Black-owned steamship company

Crew of the S.S. Frederick Douglass, circa 1920. (Photo: Wikimedia commons)

The Black Star Line (BSL) was a steamship company that was completely owned, operated and financed by people of African descent. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), a Jamaican national and master propagandist, was the leader of the Black Star Line. Garvey was a “Black nationalist and a leader of the pan-Africanism movement, which sought to unify and connect people of African descent worldwide.” Garvey also headed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA); he told UNIA members in 1921, that...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-leaders-marcus-garvey-started-black-owned-steamship-company

OceanWaves: Building a resilient supply chain

Anthony Smith and Nate Shutes chat at FreightWaves’ OceanWaves Summit.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The ways SMBs are building a resilient supply chain

DETAILS: A discussion on the ways shippers are planning for the future of maritime logistics.

INTERVIEWER AND SPEAKER: Anthony Smith, lead economist at FreightWaves, and Nate Shutes, VP of global fulfillment and logistics at Blu Dot, a furniture designer and retailer.

BIO: Shutes has nearly 20 years of experience in the supply chain, having worked with leading brands and service providers both public and private. His current...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/oceanwaves-building-a-resilient-supply-chain

FreightWaves Classics: America’s first lighthouse went “on line” 305 years ago

The Boston Light. (Photo: massmoments.org)

A lighthouse on what is now named Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor began to operate on this day in 1716. The lighthouse was called the Boston Light.

An earlier FreightWaves Classics article outlined the history of lighthouses in the United States. As noted in that article, ships today have navigational and communications aids that were almost unthinkable even 50 years ago, much less in the 1700s. Back then (and ever since) lighthouses signaled mariners as they approached...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-americas-first-lighthouse-went-on-line-305-years-ago

Maritime booking surge suggests capacity could get tighter this fall

Chart of the Week: Inbound Ocean TEUs Volume Index, Outbound Tender Volume Index – USA  SONAR: IOTI.USA, OTVI.USA

Maritime bookings represented by the Inbound Ocean TEUs Volume Index (IOTI) show a 40% increase over the past two weeks, the strongest spike in activity since early spring. This movement breaks the slow downward trend that had been in place since late April and could mean this cycle of tightened transportation capacity may have yet to peak. 

The IOTI is an index with a base value of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/maritime-booking-surge-suggests-capacity-could-get-tighter-this-fall

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