Crowley Introduces Bigger, Faster Ships in Caribbean Service

Crowley Maritime Corporation's liner services group is enhancing its Caribbean islands service beginning next week with the addition of two new, bigger, faster container ships - the Eclips and Ocean. Each ship offers about 200 more TEUs of capacity and twice the number of reefer plugs - about 160 - than the Sea Gale and Sea Cloud, the ships they are replacing. Running at about 18.5 knots, the new ships are about two knots faster, which should result in even better transit times and schedule integrity. "These new ships will benefit our customers in a number of ways," said Rudy Leming, Crowley's vice president of Caribbean islands services. "First, we're going to be better equipped to handle customers' need for space during the peak season and beyond - this includes reefer cargo, because we'll have about twice the number of shipboard plugs. Second, the speed of the vessels will allow us to provide improved schedule integrity with earlier southbound arrivals in St. Thomas and St. Croix, plus we're able to add a northbound stop in St. Thomas to offload Trinidad and Barbados cargoes." Crowley's weekly, fixed-day Caribbean islands service includes vessel calls in Jacksonville on Tuesdays, Port Everglades Thursdays, St. Thomas Sundays, St. Croix Mondays, Trinidad Tuesdays, St. Vincent Thursdays, Barbados Thursdays, and St. Thomas northbound on Fridays before returning to Jacksonville. Relay services from St. Thomas is provided to Anguilla, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatius, St. John, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Tortola and Virgin Gorda. Relay service from Barbados includes Martinique and Guadeloupe; while relay service to Canouan, Bermuda and Tobago is provided as needed from St. Vincent, Jacksonville and Trinidad respectively.