Mimi's Work Photo Album

I work for Westwood Shipping Lines, an ocean carrier of containers, forest products, and other breakbulk cargoes between Japan, Korea, and the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. I manage the Project Breakbulk business segment.

At Westwood, Project Breakbulk is defined as anything that a) doesn't fit in a container or b) isn't a forest product, such as lumber, pulp, or newsprint.

Therefore, if something doesn't fit the mold, it usually ends up on my desk! (Lucky for me, it's a desk job, because I'm not nearly big enough to be a longshoreman). I took these pictures myself, so any problems with lighting or alignment are my own.

• Our Port Terminal, T-5 in Seattle, during and just after discharge of the W. Cleo 64E; looks about like a lot where you could buy any kind of heavy equipment you like, doesn't it? Excavators and rolling stock are our main commodity, both import and export, and are well handled by our stevedores, Eagle Marine Services. (27K)
• 200,000 lb. Transformer (98 m. tonnes), imported from Korea, and discharged from W. Cleo by use of a floating crane, the Derrick 24, which is actually capable of lifting almost 3 times that much weight. I hope to challenge the Derrick 24 again soon with a 550,000 lb. press frame (240 m. tonnes). The crane is supplied by an outside company, Manson Construction and Engineering of Seattle. (37K and 21K)
• Aluminum plate ready for export to Korea. It will be used to manufacture the LNG (liquified natural gas) holding tanks of a ship specially designed to carry LNG. (26K)
• Injection Molding Machine, which was carried bare (not crated) from Japan, and discharged directly to a waiting truck trailer with no damage. We're proud of our cargo care, and our ability and willingness to work with our customers when their cargo is not "average" even for breakbulk. (18K)
• Containerized breakbulk - we have the flexibility to carry breakbulk even among our containers by mounting it on flatrack containers when the size permits. (16K)
• W. Cleo, from the stern, with cants (half-sawn logs) in the foreground. I thought it was a particularly nicely composed picture, at least for me. However, cants are "forest products" and I was taking the picture for my co-worker to show her that what had been booked as lumber was not lumber at all. (Cants displace more space than lumber and thus are charged a higher weight on the net board foot; also cants can be a safety issue due to the voids in the packaging). (27K)

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Send me mail: ntrop@ix.netcom.com

This page last updated 5 January 1997