A cloud of dust explodes from beneath when it s deposited on the shore. The checker walks over, marks the container and his clipboard, then a top loader its tires taller than a man drives up, grasps the container with its spreader bar and lifts it into the air. Loading and discharge, the nautical word for unloading occur simultaneously. The Filipino sailors on deck sway with the gentle swell of the river. A radar dish circles above us.
Spring peepers are audible in the infrequent lulls of the machinery.
The work has been going on since 8 a.m. and will continue until 11 tonight, then finish tomorrow in time for the ship to sail with the morning s high tide. In 1996 there were 128 port calls here. When Assistant Operations Manager Carl Blodgett has a spare minute, he explains that the Independent Concept will make a four-week circuit between Antwerp, Belgium, Chester, Pa., and Richmond. In the winter, they re behind. In the summer, ahead.