After Long Slide, Boston Port Sees Resurgence

Joe Picard has loaded and unloaded cargo from ships in the Port of Boston for 22 years, and lately he’s had enough work to wear out the soles of his tar-stained boots.

After nearly closing in 1997, the oldest working port in the Western Hemisphere is making a recovery.

“This year’s picking up. I hope we work every day,” Picard said over the roar of a towering blue crane unloading containers onto trucks every 90 seconds.

Figures show 1,832 vessels passed through the Massachusetts Port Authority terminals and privately owned petroleum and liquid natural gas terminals in 1998. That’s up from 1,741 vessels the previous year and 1,463 in 1996.

The figures don’t include cruise ships, ferries, water taxis, small sailboats and racing yachts now plying the once-filthy waters of Boston Harbor, cleaned up since the construction of a treatment plant.

But the rebound of commercial shipping is the real success story here, where only two container ships used to visit the port each week. The port had rivaled New York and Philadelphia until its long decline began after World War I.

Massport’s executive director, Peter Blute, overcame the objections of longshoremen and reconfigured the port’s two main facilities a year ago. The Moran Terminal was dedicated exclusively to automobiles, and the Conley Container Terminal was improved for container shipping.

There, Massport dredged the berths, put in four 120-foot cranes, built a state-of-the-art gate facility and established a computer tracking system.

Business picked up, especially last summer after a major shipper, the Mediterranean Shipping Co., began stopping in Boston three times a week instead of twice.

The popular new Volkswagen Beetle has led the surge of imported cars at the Autoport, which is expected to process 75,000 cars this year, three times its volume in 1995.

Jim Harris, Massport’s marine manager, surveyed the busy operation and reflected on its varied cargo.

“We’ve sent out scrap gold. We’ve taken in fireworks for Disney World. We’ve handled racing yachts for World Cup races. We send scrap cars to Europe.”

Perhaps the most disturbing in the home of the Boston Red Sox: “I’ve seen New York Yankee baseball caps come off in Boston.”