Page 67 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

PART II BRINGING THE WORLD TO BALTIMORE
“If we build the crane,
the sky is the limit.” — Norman Rukert Jr.
cease all stevedoring activities. Rukert Marine withdrew membership from the Steamship Trade Association, the entity responsible for negotiating with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 333. Rukert Marine continued to function as a customhouse and ship-agency firm until John Landetta’s death in 1983.
Once completed, the much anticipated $2
BELOW: This book, privately published for the 60th anniversary, chronicles how the company evolved with the Port of Baltimore.
million crane quickly became the workhorse o
o
f
f
South Clinton Street and the symbolic heartb
e
a
of Rukert Terminals. The rapid-discharge bul
k
l unloader could travel 450 feet up and down the
b
e
t
k
a
t
condition. When there was a problem, it was Joe who responded at all hours to fix it. Joe sometimes worked as many as 40 days straight without a break. When he did get time off to travel, he packed a suitcase full of the crane’s electrical diagrams so he could help troubleshoot problems remotely.
The PECO took over a year and a half to manufacture, build and erect, leaving Rukert Terminals without a crane after the Canton Company’s crane pier closed. For six months, Rukert was forced to make do by using rented floating cranes to discharge vessels. In fact, by the early 1980s, the stevedoring business had dwindled considerably. Coupled with the failing health of John Landetta, who headed Rukert Marine, it was decided that the Rukert Terminals subsidiary would
pier and had a 92-foot boom that could be raised and lowered. The PECO was equipped with a 10-cubic-yard general-purpose bucket designed to quickly discharge potash, magnesite, salt, urea, and many other light- to medium-density materials. A 2.5 cubic-yard tray-type bucket
was also available to discharge heavy ores like ferro chrome and ferro manganese. These buckets dumped material into the hopper, which was equipped with an electronic scale that monitored total weight discharged as well as the weight of each individual load. After weighing, each load was discharged from the hopper, down a chute into a dump truck waiting below.
59