Our Ship Came In
Ever since seafaring began, across the centuries, merchants have anxiously awaited the arrival of a ship containing goods, families have anticipated reunions with loved ones, or people have looked forward to a new life in a new world. We understand their excitement as we have watched and waited for our vessel containing a cargo of reeds from the Marshes of Iraq! In this digital age, one tool we’ve had at our disposal is a website where we can follow the progress of our container using an assigned tracking number.
Our container has had many adventures on its journey from Iraq to America! It has traveled on four ships and experienced multiple delays along the way to Houston, including a major delay that was caused by a fire on board the ship when it was in the Suez Canal. The final ship on which it sailed was the Swansea which finally brought it in to the Port of Houston on Tuesday, June 6th, 2023. We don’t think any ship has ever been more anticipated!
The Port of Houston is one of the busiest seaports in the world and consists of a number of terminals from Galveston to the Turning Basin near downtown Houston. A unique feature of the port is the Houston Ship Channel that is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an increasing volume of inland barge traffic. Along the course of the Ship Channel are major chemical refineries which have docks that serve massive tanker ships, as well as the Bayport Container Terminal, seen below, that allows large container ships to be unloaded. Amongst all of the many containers found on board the massive ship Swansea, is our 40-foot container of reeds from Iraq.
The Swansea docked at the Bayport Container Terminal where our container was unloaded. The container has been tagged for x-ray and inspection by the US Department of Agriculture after being seen by US Border Patrol and Customs. It’s almost certain that it will need to be fumigated before it can travel to Houston and to Rice University. The delays seem interminable. It has been challenging to figure out a construction schedule.
As we’ve been nervously waiting the arrival of the Swansea, thoughts turn to excavations of shipwreck sites around the world, and through time, whose owners probably never knew what happened to lost cargo and who didn’t have access to a website and use of a tracking number to follow the progress of their cargo!
We sympathize with these merchants across the centuries who wondered if their ship, containing precious cargo, would make it safely to harbor.
