Crowley to Add New Container Ship to U.S. – Virgin Islands/Eastern Caribbean Service
Fixed-Day Weekly Schedule with Cargo Available Saturday Mornings in St. Thomas
(Jacksonville, Fla.; Jan. 22, 2007) – To meet the needs of customers for vessel space in the U.S.-Virgin Islands trade, Crowley Maritime Corporation’s liner services group announced today it will deploy a third container ship, the Westerland, to sail on a weekly, fixed-day schedule between Port Everglades and St. Thomas.
The 502-TEU ship is scheduled to depart tomorrow (Jan. 23) and arrive in St. Thomas on Friday night, with cargo available for pick up Saturday morning. This will be the weekly, fixed-day schedule going forward.
The Westerland, which will sail only between South Florida and St. Thomas, will supplement Crowley’s regular weekly, fixed-day service with the Sea Gale and Sea Cloud. Each week, one of these 600-TEU ships departs Jacksonville on Tuesday, Port Everglades on Thursday, and calls in St. Thomas every Sunday, with subsequent calls in St. Croix, Trinidad, Barbados and St. Vincent. Additionally, Crowley provides service to the islands of Anguilla, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatius, St. John, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Bermuda, Canouan, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Tobago via relay service.
“We added a third vessel to the service in the fourth quarter last year to accommodate the peak season requirements of our customers,” said Rudy Leming, Crowley’s vice president of Caribbean islands services. “We discontinued the additional sailing after the holidays, but demand has remained strong, so were bringing in a new ship to keep the service going.”
“What we’ve found is that customers really appreciate the extra weekly vessel capacity and our ability to have their cargo available for pick up on Saturday morning,” Leming said. “That’s important to grocers, retailers and builders on the island. The supplemental sailing also allows for an earlier arrival to our connecting feeder island services.”
In addition to having space for traditional 20- and 40-foot containers and other common-sized specialty equipment such as flat racks and open tops, the Westerland has 60 reefer slots.
Oakland-based Crowley Maritime Corporation, founded in 1892, is primarily a family and employee-owned company that provides diversified transportation and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of four operating lines of business: Liner Services; Logistics Services; Petroleum Services and Marine Services. Other services provided within these business lines include contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response; vessel management, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales. Additional information about Crowley its subsidiaries and business units may be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.
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