JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JaxPort welcomed the largest container ship on Tuesday to ever call on the Port of Jacksonville.
Officials called it a historic day for the port as The Competence arrived, hitting at 1,036 feet long and able to carry about 65,000 tons of cargo.
"It's interesting when people say Jacksonville will never see the biggest ships come out here, and you see it with your two eyes," said JaxPort senior director of communications Nancy Rubin.
Officials at JaxPort said they want the city's port to be a first port of call for the vessels it docks. Currently, the port is third.
"Gateway ports are the best slot to be in," said Dennis Kelly, regional vice president and general manager of Trapac container terminal. "That allows for discretionary cargo -- cargo that goes into ports such as Memphis, Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis, Detroit."
JaxPort officials said ships like The Competence are the reason Jacksonville needs to deepen its channel.
The vessel came to the city from Southeast Asia, but before hundreds of Jacksonville workers started unloading cargo off the ship Tuesday, The Competence had to stop at two other ports because the channel isn't deep enough.
Currently, the channel is only 40 feet deep. If it was 7 feet deeper, JaxPort could have handled The Competence first.
But the ship came to Jacksonville 19,000 tons lighter, weighing 46,000 tons. But the more containers to unload, the better for the city's economy.
"First port in, last port out is where you want to be," Kelly said. "Every container adds man hours, not just here directly, but it also brings man hours to the whole supply chain."
JaxPort officials hope by 2020 that the city has a 47-foot channel. That way big ships like The Competence can come straight to JaxPort without stopping at other ports first.