Crowley Delivers Brewing Equipment to Dominican Republic

(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.; December 20, 2000) Crowley Liner Services, which specializes in handling oversized cargo, recently transported six large commercial-size beer ventilators from Port Everglades, Fla. to the largest brewery in the Dominican Republic.

The recipient of this equipment was Cerveceria Nacional Dominica, the national brewing company of the Dominican Republic. The company makes Presidente Beer and supplies about 95 percent of the domestic beer in the Dominican market and is also a large exporter to the United States.

Cervezeria Nacional Dominica was in great need of the six, very large ventilators and wanted them shipped together on the same vessel. The brewers agent, John S. James, of Savannah, Ga., a well-known and established freight forwarder and customs house broker, called on Crowley to handle the sizable job.

Each of the ventilators measured 12 feet in height, 14 feet in width and 25 feet in length, and weighed more than four tons combined. The units are also quite expensive carrying a price tag of about $500,000 per component. Each piece of equipment is used in the beer making process and is comprised of watertight seals and delicate components, making each extremely fragile to ship.

The six ventilators arrived in Port Everglades by truck from Tempe, Ariz. They were then custom rigged by Crowley dockworkers and lifted onto dropdeck flatbeds. The customer requested that the units be covered so, Crowley arranged for them to be loaded last and stowed below deck aboard the Crowley Sun, a 526-foot Ro/Ro vessel. After a carefully executed and lengthy loading process, the ship sailed and arrived three days later on schedule in Rio Haina in the Dominican Republic.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Crowley Liner Services provides cargo common carrier services between Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and the north coasts of Colombia and Venezuela. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oakland-based Crowley Maritime Corp., founded in 1892. Additional information about Crowley Maritime Corp. and its subsidiaries, Crowley Liner Services, Crowley Marine Services, Crowley Logistics and Crowley Petroleum Transport may be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.