Page 46 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

Terminals took ownership of Pier 5 three decades later, the property had more than 11 acres. In 1967, a 40,000-square-foot building, named Building #6, was constructed to store bulk potash for a new fertilizer customer, the Dead Sea Works of Israel.
In February of 1967, the Maritime Square Club honored Cap with its second annual Bell Award
for his outstanding contributions to the maritime industry and his deep sense of loyalty to Baltimore. He was also given a Mayor’s Citation and was designated an Admiral of the Baltimore Harbor by the City Comptroller. To mark his 80th birthday, Helen Bentley wrote another profile of Cap for
The Baltimore Sun. She also compiled some of Cap’s accolades into a booklet titled Cap Rukert: Silhouette of a Pioneering Spirit on the Baltimore Waterfront.
But Cap’s health began to fail in the late 1960s, and the responsibility of operating the company was taken over by Norman Sr., from his small office at Lazaretto. At the time, Rukert Terminals was going through a drastic change in the types of cargoes
that were being handled through its facilities. When the international companies stopped exporting sulphate of ammonia and soybean meal, Norman
Sr. was determined to find new accounts to take
up the slack. Aided by John Curley, President of Eastmet, Norman Sr. procured a new account with Le Nickel, a company that imported palletized
ferro nickel ingots—used in steel production—from New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The successful handling of this account attracted other nickel importers who started storing their cargoes at Rukert Terminals.
At the same time, the bulk ferro alloy tonnage imported from Europe to Rukert Terminals increased markedly. These alloys, also used in making steel, required special services like crushing, screening, bagging, drumming and palletizing.
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