Here is a good start.

http://www.drybulkterminals.org/

Some history (not necessarily from the Carribbean)

http://www.ppiaf.org/sites/ppiaf.org...0Terminals.pdf ■

I once prepared a scheme to continuously recirculate and intermittently export a mountain of weathered bauxite at Chaguaramas in Trinidad. That was in the 1980's and the weathered pile was left behind from before the 1960's. Bauxite was lightered out to deep water vessels outside the reef. I recently looked up the workings history, after your post, and learned that Alcoa, or Alcan, had really got their act together and although the bauxite was still being exported the area was now a very pleasant holiday resort. It certainly was not pleasant in my day and before. So you could start there and take heart in those acheivements. I hadn't been aware, until backgrounding your recent post, that plenty of the pile had been dumped into Chaguaramas from Surinam. I would imagine that Alcan/Alcoa would be very proud of their achieivement and definitely willing to explain what they did. ■

....that containerisation was practically unknown and definitely in its infancy up to the early 1960's. Nowadays many projects involve shifting cargoes such as sulphur, alumina, soda and plastic feedstock are routinely handled in containers. Sadly, that is not yet recognised. Maybe it is embarrassing to recognise that US crane operators get paid $200 h^-1 , so somebody can afford it. ■

Originally Posted by johngateley

....that containerisation was practically unknown and definitely in its infancy up to the early 1960's. Nowadays many projects involve shifting cargoes such as sulphur, alumina, soda and plastic feedstock are routinely handled in containers. Sadly, that is not yet recognised. Maybe it is embarrassing to recognise that US crane operators get paid $200 h^-1 , so somebody can afford it.

My experience in material handling (conveyor system, wharf cranes etc),started in 60,s.

The first conveyor system associated with, by me is HEWITT-ROBINS,2500 TPH,Iron ore Lumpy,conveyor system with a longest belt of 1000ft,troughing angle 20 degrees,plain return idlers, troughing trainers after every 10 carrying idlers.

The belt used was 4ft Cotton/Cotton belt. N/N and Steel cord belts were not introduced in India that time.

The largest drive, Single drive 300 HP Sq Cage motors of Luis-Allies motor with semi flexible couplings on both HS and LS side (geared coupling). speed 600ft/mt.

We have later changed to CN belt and subsequently in late 1980 with steel cord belts and actuator type coupling.

Narayanan Nalinakshan. ■

I have a scanned copy of the Nanjing 'Coastal and Ports Engineering' from 1987, bought in 1998. It runs to a few Mb but is available to interested parties. There are also Singaporean texts which are quite readable concerning Import and Export.

A career path in this business shows that you are not afraid of the unknown. Your endeavours will be undertaken in constant darkness apart from a few sunbeams.

Many persons criticise out of a background of ignorance and because they cannot recognise the difference between seafarers and landlubbers which difference should be rather apparent when discussing ports. Time and again you will be presented with proposals which have more place in a circus ring than along the dockside. When that happens, err on the seafarers' side.

(After 45 years in the job I recently became aware of disasters caused by wet ores developing shear planes within ships' holds. The vessels capsized en route. Some probably still do! This was particularly frequent in Chinese vessels loading out of Indonesian sites. The nickel ore was rapidly loaded to beat the crazy Indonesian local content legislation although it would have been very wet anyway. So much for safety. As an Owner's Engineer (temporary) I was not aware of the practices of the adjacent Chinese site and I was anyway based in Kuala Lumpur and only made rare site visits. The vessels which I saw, anchored offshore, seemed to be quite new.)

Port engineering is a Cinderella operation where corners are sometimes cut and when something happens the costs are astronomical and the ramifications are minimal.

You might find this business expansive, fascinating, moderately compensating and sometimes satisfying. ■