Hornblower Marine Services (HMS), as activated by the Maritime Administration, will be assisting in the combined relief efforts in Haiti after the country experienced an earthquake on January 12, 2010 that caused catastrophic damage and loss of life.
HMS crews will deploy the high-speed vessels Huakai and Alakai, both which are capable of carrying humanitarian supplies and/or people to and from the affected areas. The 373-foot Huakai and 352-foot Alakai are passenger and vehicle vessels that can travel 30+ knots with available seating in excess of 800 passengers and a cargo deck capacity of 25,000 square feet.
Both vessels were designed and built in the United States by Austal USA based in Mobile, Alabama.
“The devastation in Haiti is truly heart wrenching,” said HMS Vice President and Haiti project manager William (Bill) Annand.
“All of us at Hornblower Marine Services are honored to have the opportunity to work with the Maritime Administration and Military Sealift Command in assisting in this humanitarian effort.”
“The large high-speed ferries we operate, such as the Huakai and Alakai, are very versatile and scalable platforms that are very well-suited to this task. HMS previously experienced a similar humanitarian relief effort while assigned to Operation Unified Assistance after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. HMS operated the HSV WestPac Express and delivered tons of needed supplies to Thailand in 2004.”
“These unique vessels have tremendous capabilities with their roll on/roll off cargo decks, high passenger capacity, high speed, shallow draft and self deploying cargo ramps. HMS is able to quickly man the vessels from our large pool of professional mariners and is actively assisting in any way needed.”
Hornblower will also be blogging about the response at http://www.hmshaiti.com/
(Thanks Robert)