General Cargo Ships Before Container
The strip of the dock was teeming with people. Voices, noise of cranes, whistles of tugs, horns, all in a hum of sounds that we didn’t even bother anymore. On the “wall”, before 7:00 am, a group of stevedores crowded with screams, hands in the air, showing the badge, trying to get the password. And then they ran to the ship. An unsuspecting person might even feel that they were in a hurry to work. Illusion….
Trucks lined up waiting their turn, forklifts busy transporting pallets between the sides and warehouses, wagons crossing the wharf strip, and several other vehicles that congested the primary zone, in a daily frenzy that only those who lived those times can understand.
Once the stairs had been lowered, Saúde dos Portos, Alfândega and DOPS, the agency in charge of controlling the entry and exit of people from Brazil, climbed on board. The visit was filled with drinks and snacks, and the authorities always left with the souvenir: a bottle of whiskey, vodka, brandy, or a pack of cigarettes. It was customary. The crew, eager to go ashore, hoped to finish their visit to meet their “loves” from Rua General Câmara, who often waited outside the gate. They could finally enjoy the many days of the ship’s call in port – something unthinkable nowadays.
In the holds of ships it had everything. Crates, trusses, box, drums, sacks, bales, loose loads such as machines, vehicles, and even live animals in some cases. And several stevedores and repairmen inside making and undoing slings, repairing packaging and whatever else was necessary. And, of course, they had the lookouts to prevent the high-value cargo thefts in the basements, which still occurred as a matter of course.
All that was gone, almost suddenly, with the popularization of the container. In a few years the scenario changed, the ships changed, the hull structure changed, and all that quay and board bustle was replaced by titanic cranes like portainers, shiploaders, MHCs, or tug masters, stackers, terminal tractors, etc., and by a few port operators with walktalkies and a much smaller number of union workers.
Some operations still have part of those characteristics, but they are becoming rarer. Nostalgia, like mine, wonder if all that will come back with the current crisis in the full container segment and the surprising search for break bulk ships again. And they even root for it.
But, although nostalgic, I don’t think it will go back to how it was before. And I’m not rooting for it. Times have changed. Technology has changed. The reality is no longer the same, and it makes no sense in this first quarter of the 21st century, like all the demand for consumer and production goods, for us to want to go back in speed, costs and efficiency.
However, it is worth reflecting on the future. It was proven that the system is fragile, and that a serious crisis like Covid-19, or a stranding on a route as vital as Suez, is enough for bottlenecks that impact the entire logistics chain. It is up to the planning departments to simulate similar situations in order to avoid that, should a new global crisis arise like the one we are experiencing, they are not caught in short fighter jets.
All that remains for the fossils (I’m about to become one) are just longing for and learning from a time when Shipping’s fundamentals were practiced with more purity. Life experience and learning that today allow me to share the little with those who seek to understand how the general load/break bulk market works.
