Port Canaveral
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Part of the series on |
Florida Ports |
| Port Canaveral |
|
Port of Apalachicola |
| Wikipedia:WikiProject Florida |
Port Canaveral is a major cruise and cargo port located in Brevard County, Florida.
Port Canaveral is the second busiest cruise port in the world with 4.6 million cruise passengers passing through during 2004. Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean International, Holland America, and Norwegian Cruise Line are some of the cruise lines which regularly dock at one of the six cruise terminals. The port also bears operations for the casino ships of SunCruz Casinos and Sterling Casino Lines.
A world-class deep water port, Port Canaveral also has a high volume of cargo traffic. Over three million tons of bulk cargo moves through Port Canaveral each year. Commonly shipped cargo includes cement, petroleum and aggregate. The port is equipped with conveyors and hoppers for loading products directly into trucks, and facilities for bulk cargo containers.
There is 750,000 square feet (70,000 m²) of covered freight storage capacity. It handled 4 million tons of cargo in 2004. The port exports fresh citrus; bulk frozen citrus juice stored in one of the largest freezer warehouses in the state; cement and building materials. The port receives lumber, salt for water softening, automobiles, and steel sheet and plate. It transships items for land, sea, air and space. Having the shortest direct entry on Florida's East Coast, Port Canaveral offers 45-minute transit time from the first sea buoy to docking. Port Canaveral's Foreign Trade Zone is among the largest general purpose FTZs in the nation - over 5 square miles (13 km²). The port boosts Brevard's economy by 1/2 billion dollars annually.
In April 2007, shipping was off 25.6% for the previous six months compared to the previous year, down to 295,965 tons per months.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Governing Authority
Port commissioners are elected from the surrounding area by popular vote. They run non-partisan.
District 1 - Ray Sharkey
District 2 - Joe D. Matheny
District 3 - Tom Goodson
District 4 - Ralph Kennedy
District 5 - Rodney S. Ketcham
Salary is $10,083.72 annually.
Chief Executive Officer (appointed) - J. Stanley Payne
[edit] History
[edit] Concept and early development
The idea of developing a port at this location was first conceived in the 1880s. Dedication occurred November 4, 1953, with the navy destroyer escort USS McClelland (DE-750) participating. Colonel Noah Butt, a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, was the first Chairman of the Canaveral Port Authority.[2] The first port manager, George King, was announced in 1954. Commercial fishing had already begun at the port, and in the next year commercial shipping began, with a load of bagged cement delivered by the SS Morman Spruce. In 1955, the Tropicana Corporation began building a refrigerated warehouse for the purpose of storing orange juice, a significant local agricultural product, prior to shipping.
Cruise traffic first appeared at the port in 1964, with the SS Yarmouth Castle, recently purchased by Yarmouth Cruise Lines from the Chadade Steamship Company. The ship was American owned, with registration from Panama. The ship burned at sea between Miami and Nassau in 1965, and cruise traffic was limited until the 1980s.
In 1965, a lock was dedicated at the port. The Canaveral Lock is still in operation, and is maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The focus of the port throughout the 1960s and 1970s remained commercial fishing and shipping, with three 400-foot (120 m) cargo piers built on the north side of the Port in 1976, and a succession of warehouses built in the port area.
Port Canaveral has played an important role in support of NASA projects out of nearby John F. Kennedy Space Center. Specifically, the Space Shuttle's external tanks are floated into Port Canaveral for each mission from their fabrication facility in Mississippi, and the solid rocket boosters are towed back through Port Canaveral after being fished out of the Atlantic Ocean after each launch.
[edit] Cruise traffic
In the early 1980s, a new port director, Charles Rowland, shifted the focus towards developing the port to a Cruise port. In 1982, a 20,000 square feet (2,000 m²) warehouse on the north side of the port was converted into Cruise Terminal 1. The SS Scandinavian Sea, a 10,427 ton ship, was the first cruise ship to homeport at Port Canaveral. Early cruises were simple day cruises out into the ocean and back. This ship, like the first to dock at Canaveral, met with disaster. In March of 1984, a fire broke out on ship while at sea, 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Port Canaveral. No lives were lost.
Expanding the Cruise capability of the port begun in 1982, two more warehouses were converted to cruise terminals in 1983. The following year the SS Royale of Premier Cruise Line was homeported at Port Canaveral. The first year-round 3- and 4-day cruises to the Bahamas began. A fourth cruise terminal was opened in 1986.
As of January, 2008, the following cruise ships homeported at Port Canaveral:
Sovereign of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) sailing Fridays and Mondays
Mariner of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) sailing Sundays
Carnival Sensation (Carnival Cruise Lines) sailing Thursdays and Sundays
Carnival Glory (Carnival Cruise Lines) sailing Saturdays
Disney Wonder (Disney Cruise Lines) sailing Thursdays and Sundays
Disney Magic (Disney Cruise Lines) sailing Saturdays
Royal Caribbean is currently planning changes to its ship lineup at Port Canaveral. In December 2008, Sovereign will be replaced by Monarch of the Seas, as Sovereign is retired and transferred to Pullmantur Cruises. In 2009, Mariner will move to Port of Los Angeles, and the 154,000-ton Freedom of the Seas will move into Port Canaveral from Port of Miami-Dade.
[edit] Statistics
Fiscal year 2007-8 started slowly. There was a 44.5% drop in cargo in October and November compared with the preceding year. Multiday cruise passengers dropped 14.4%, and gambling passengers dropped 23.7%. Cargo slowdown was attributed to a slowdown in construction in Florida due to the weakened housing market.
Cement imports, tied to construction, was 13,917 tons, a drop of 87.6% for the two month comparison with the previous year. Petroleum, the ports largest single import, was 129,256 tons, a drop of 25& over the same period.[3]
[edit] SeaFest
The SeaFest seafood festival was first held in 1983.[4] The celebration occurred over three days in early spring, and was co-hosted by the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the Canaveral Port Authority. It featured live music, local artists, and seafood. In 2005, the final year of the festival at the port, 5,000 pounds of freshly caught fish, including flounder, Florida rock shrimp, blue crab claws and 100 gallons of seafood chowder were consumed at the festival. In 2006, because of security concerns and the site being needed for cargo, the festival was forced to move elsewhere and was renamed. In 2008 it tried to move back but was canceled.
[edit] Future plans
The Canaveral Port Authority announced in 2006 several plans for the future
- a fuel-tank depot with a pipeline to Orlando International Airport
- attracting a mega-cruise ship (Freedom of the Seas will move there in 2009[5])
- widening of the port's channel
- enlarging the western turning basin
- construction of an additional cruise terminal
Carnival Cruise Lines has announced that the new 130,000-ton Carnival Dream – the largest “Fun Ship” ever constructed – will be based at Port Canaveral, Fla., beginning in fall 2009.[6]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ (April 16, 2007) Cargo Data. Florida Today.
- ^ Official website
- ^ Blake, Scott (January 16, 2008). Port sees decrease in cargo and cruising. Florida Today.
- ^ Balancia, Donna (March 11, 2008). SeaFest short on funding, canceled. Florida Today.
- ^ Port Canaveral
- ^ Carnival connections.com
[edit] External links
- Canaveral Port Authority
- Port Canaveral History
- Port Canaveral Timeline (In pdf format)
- Port Canaveral Cruises
- Canaveral Lock
- Live Cam from Port Canaveral
- Port Canaveral is at coordinates Coordinates:
