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The handling of sugar at the Cali- fornia and Hawaiian Sugar Co.’s re- finery at Crockett, Calif., is a most efficient cargo handling operation. During a period of five months raw sugar was discharged at the average of 117 tons per hatch per hour, with a gang of 17 men. The highest per- formance was 155 tons per hatch per hour and it is possible that this could have been exceeded if the refinery facilities had permitted receiving the sugar at a faster rate. As many as 207 slingboards have been taken out of one hatch in an hour. These achievements are possible because of the well trained gangs that do the work constantly, because of fast winches and the belt conveyors on the dock that remove the sugar as fast as discharged. By having the ten hold men di- vided into five gangs of two men each, a slingload is always ready for the hook. An important feature is the changing the work of the men at two hour intervals. For example, the men on the landing platform are shifted at these intervals to the position at the head of the conveyor and the conveyor men are put to work on the platform. On the dock the special type belt conveyors which are placed on scales, permit getting the bags of sugar away from the side of the ship quickly and weighing them quickly. The conveyor is mounted on a plat- form scale which in turn is carried by a steel frame work fitted with 68 MARINE OTUTTTUUUHTT TORE ELUALLELOEH LEER ELE Ship’s Hatch Fit- ted with Spe- cially Construct- ed Cover Devel- oped by Captain Kane TUVTUUUGTHATEUOHHLLLUOHILUOR UU LLELEELLL car wheels. Tracks laid along the dock make it possible to shift the units, for spotting opposite ship’s hatches. Each unit is provided with Kane Cargo Light on Bulkhead jacks for accurately leveling the scale. <A set of test weights is so mounted that by moving a lever they may be placed on the scale or re- moved. <A revolving brush cleans the belt, immediately removing all loose Sugar spillage: otherwise the ac- curacy of the weighing would be im- paired. Careful checking has con- clusively proved the accuracy of this method of weighing, and the weights are accepted by both the refinery and the plantations as the basis for pur- chase. QUQDHAUUDUUUUONQQUOUACOUOETEUUUEUGUUALU Electric Truck Handling Cargo Through Side Port of Matson Line Ship TINTUTELUQQUATODSE0Q0QOUATETNGAUUETNNANNTAUL i REVIEw—August, L931 The slingloads, consisting of gix- teen bags, are landed on a platform at the edge of the apron on the up- per deck of the dock. Formerly the bags were trucked by hand truck, There were 20 trucks per hatch and the rate of discharge 675 tons in eight hours. The conveyor scales increased the discharging rate about 1000 tons in eight hours and saved twenty truckers. Two men on the platform, with the assistance of two men on the floor next to the platform also two men at the head of each conveyor, throw the bags to the conveyors, one bag to the right conveyor and the next bag to the left conveyor. This puts eight bags on each conveyor. As the bags move, the two weighers set the scale and record the weight. If there is delay due to any cause, the weighers may stop the conveyor belt until weight is obtained. The sampler takes samples as the bags move on the dock conveyor. The bags are dumped from the shipside conveyor to two belt con- veyors one of which runs to the re- finery, the other to raw sugar stor- age warehouse. An automatic de- vice has been provided which sends any desired number of bags to the refinery or to the warehouse, or al- ternately to both. For example, two bags to the refinery and five to stor- age. All that is necessary is to plug in on the combination wanted. Only two hatches are worked at a time because with an average dis- charge of 117 tons per hatch per hour, the refinery and warehouse fa- cilities cannot handle more than the sugar coming out of two hatches. However, around 2000 tons of sugar are discharged in eight hours by two gangs and another 1000 tons by a night gang working one hatch. A to- tal of around 3000 tons is discharged in one calendar day. Both raw and refined sugar is handled in the refinery and the ware- house by an elaborate system of con- veyors all of which are controlled at a central station. The screw type conveyor mentioned previously is used for certain operations supple- menting the belt and slat conveyors. Ten electric lift trucks are used throughout the warehouse and the refinery for handling boxes and bar- rels. Raw sugar is stored as high as 60 bags in a pile. Great skill in build- ing the pile is necessary to prevent the piles from collapsing, I talked with the Matson Line of- ficials about the use of side ports. They have had no difficulty with © leaky ports, a frequent objection of- fered to the use of side ports in off- shore ships. They have found the advantage in side ports to be faster dispatch of ship than is possible with overall hatches because a great- er number of men can be put to work in handling cargo through side ports, than with hatches alone.