OUR READERS RESPOND TO EDITORIAL

PISCATAQUA NOT GOOD FOR CRUISE SHIPS
Mr. Roach sucked you in on this one, and you should have looked around for the rebuttal before printing it. If you have  free time some day,  go down to the Portsmouth Harbor PIlots office on Ceres Street, where the tugboats tie up.  Ask them why Roach's 1,000 person capacity passenger ships cannot call at Portsmouth.

There is one major reason - the Piscataqua River. Ocean going vessels arriving at and departing from Portsmouth do so at approximately slack water.  That occurs at high tide and low tide.   Passenger ships desire to dock at 6 or 7 in the morning and sail at 5 or 6 in the evening and that simply cannot be done at Portsmouth.

Another problem is the availability of berthing space.
Portsmouth has only one pier suitable for large ships.  If there is a scrap ship on the berth, she is not going to be moved to accomodate a passenger ship.

Roach also mentions Bar Harbor, but passenger ships call there and take advantage of a protected anchorage, using their small boats to ferry the passengers ashore.  There is no current to contend with, either.  Passenger ships calling at Portland anchor off the Promenade.   Gloucester just happens to have a berth for a mid-size passenger ship, and there is no competition. 

I was the Port Captain for the YANKEE CLIPPER which ran in a weekly feeder service from Halifax  from 1979 to 1991.  Whenever a scrap ship or another type freighter was on the berth, the importers and exporters were furious, as the weekly call was forfeited.  Eventually, that is what cost Portsmouth the service.  Portland had a guaranteed berth, and Hapag-Lloyd took advantage of it, and the service existed until a few months ago.

 I am now retired and a few of my facts may be skewed, that's why I say you should run the question past the pilots.

Cordially.
Capt. George W. Duffy

CRUISING IN PORTSMOUTH
GREAT ARTICLE ON CRUISE SHIPS AND THEIR HUGE BENEFITS TO MERCHANTS IN PORTSMOUTH AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. I HOPE A CONTINUOS DIALOGUE WILL RESULT. IT SEEMS THE PDA IS RECEPTIVE TO CHANGING DIRECTION. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
JAMES GEEKIE