Looming over the waterfront like a small herd of giraffes browsing in the tops of a stand of acacia trees, the 20-story cranes hoist bus-sized boxes from the ship berthed below, then lower them gently onto the backs of trucks called yard hustlers.
Container after container rises to the whirling winches, lightening the ship at a rate of 25 an hour, as the diesel trucks roar and whisk deposited boxes from the dock.
The $250 million Seagirt Marine Terminal, designed to lead Baltimore back to prominence among East Coast ports, is up and running after a very slow start.
One year after its opening, Seagirt still is only 70 percent leased, but maritime officials say the state-of-the-art facility is beginning to fulfill its promise of luring new business to the ailing Port of Baltimore.
Ten years in the planning and building, the facility increased the port's container cargo capacity by 50 percent.
When the facility opened, port officials said they expected Seagirt to be fully leased by January 1991. In the spring, with the facility less than half leased, former port director Brendan W. "Bud" O'Malley predicted Seagirt would be filled by year's end.
But customers did not come as fast as expected. The three lines that leased space at Seagirt during its first year came from other terminals in the port and meant no new business. Now, say port officials, the business is starting to come.
One of the largest container lines in the world announced recently that it will begin weekly service to Baltimore after a seven-year absence and call at Seagirt.
Although officials at Orient Overseas Container Line would not comment beyond a news release issued previously, port officials say they doubt OOCL would have come back to Baltimore without Seagirt.
At the time OOCL announced its decision to resume service to Baltimore, company president Al Benki declared Seagirt "the most modern facility with potential for the best production in the United States. . . ."
Just a few days after OOCL announced that it was coming to Seagirt, the terminal's initial tenant, Mediterranean Shipping Co., announced it will increase the containers it brings through the port as the result of a signed agreement with Empremar S.A.
The terminal's grand opening was Sept. 11, 1990, one day late because the ship that was to participate in the ceremony, the Rafaela, was delayed by engine problems.
