Page 36 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

pier was completed on March 30, 1954, in time to dock the S/S Billetal, which discharged a cargo of olives in barrels.
When the famed Bethlehem Steel Corporation approached Rukert Terminals in the summer of 1953 about bagging bulk sulphate of ammonia, it started a new type of terminal service not offered anywhere on the East or Gulf Coast. Bethlehem Steel had a contract to ship 30,000 tons of bagged sulphate of ammonia to help fertilize the farmland of war-torn Korea. The material was to be shipped from the various Bethlehem plants, bagged, and loaded aboard three vessels holding 10,000
tons each by January 15, 1954. Rukert Terminals persuaded the Pennsylvania Railroad to convert its Pier 11 facility in lower Canton to accommodate the bagging operation. Under the supervision of Harry Routson Jr., and Norman, four portable bagging units were set up on the pier. By working 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, including the Christmas and New Year period, the industrious employees at Rukert Terminals completed the contract, with a week to spare before the deadline.
Cap improved the Lazaretto terminal further by building three transit sheds adjacent to the new “A” berth pier. Once these cinder block structures were complete, Rukert Terminals ordered three Inglett and Corley automatic bagging machines, each capable of turning out 18 one-hundred-pound bags
of sulphate of ammonia per minute. Within one year, the machines were being utilized 12 hours a day, seven days a week. This innovative bagging operation, devised by Norman Rukert Sr., boosted tonnage at Rukert Terminals considerably. It was so successful that the system would eventually be emulated at ports along the coast and down to the Mexican border.
The steel mills were now receiving orders for bulk shipments of sulphate of ammonia, and they
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