CHAPTER III, SECTION 6
ed to Elmer was offloaded onto the pier. This
condition was rectified and wing-to-wing discharge was initiated and permitted more rapid
offloading of the vessels. Another problem was
the loss of working hours due to the necessity
of closing and reopening hatches because of
frequent rain squalls and the need for overnight cover. This was overcome by the use of
hatch tents fabricated at the Jobsite from scrap

canvas. The use of these tents on the SS Swarth-

more Victory eliminated the need for closing

and opening the hatches 22 times during one
operation, representing a saving in many hatch
ours.

At first, reefer cargo assigned to Elmer

was offloaded at the deep water pier, and
that for Fred was offloaded offshore and into
LCMs for ferrying to the site. This proved
cumbersome and time-consuming, particularly
since cargo was sometimes stowed aboard the
ocean-going vessel in a manner that required
alternate discharge for each site. Therefore it
became the practice to offload all refrigerated
cargo at the Elmer deep water pier and to transship cargo assigned to Fred via trucks in LCUs.

Page 3-32

During the peak of construction activity, difficulties developed because marine craft were
urgently needed for other purposes. Experiments
disclosed that refrigerated cargo could be moved
by barge with noloss, provided it was well covered with tarpaulins; therefore this method of
handling Fred refrigerated cargo was adopted.
Because of the intense over-all shipping
activity that developed during the peak construction period, the old cargo pier had to be
used frequently. At one time there were a
major cargo vessel and an LST at the deep
water pier, an LST at the old cargo pier, and
a reefer vessel in the lagoon being worked
simultaneously.
The wind and currents at times made
ship handling and docking difficult, and the
deep water pier sustained damage on several
occasions and had to be taken out of operation
until repairs could be effected; the old cargo
pier was put into use during these repairs.
The per-vessel tonnage of cargo that ar-

rived at Jobsite is shown in Table No. 3-5
and
3-6.

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