Saint Helena Shipping - South Atlantic

If there ever was a sister island to Norfolk Island then St.Helena would have to be it.  The similarities between the two islands were quite amazing.  We arrived on St Helena after a 4 day voyage aboard the RMS St Helena.  Before we had even disembarked at St Helena the local stevedores had already discharged all the containers on deck, and were beginning to discharge those in the hold.

St Helena has a coastline of imposing 200m high cliffs surrounding the Island with only 2 places accessible to the sea.  With no airport (although currently under construction) St Helena is totally dependent on one ship for both passenger access & cargo with the RMS St Helena being their access to the world, operating from Ascension Island & Cape Town

Jamestown is the only port on St Helena and is a open roadstead anchorage.  All passengers arrive, and cargo are unloaded at “The Wharf”, Jamestown.  The Wharf is built on a narrow rock platform directly under the 200m high cliffs. The cliffs have been covered in steel mesh to prevent rock falls.

Passengers are ferried ashore in dedicated passenger tenders.  To handle containers they use 2 Flat top barges that can carry up to 30 tonnes in weight.  Depending on the weight of the containers, each barge can carry up to 3 containers. 








As well they have former US Navy landing craft.  While the landing craft is twice the size of the flat top barge it can only carry 2 containers. The landing craft is only used occasionally due to its high fuel consumption & limited payload.

Ashore the barges are moored a few metres off shore from the wharf face, with the cargo being unloaded using 2 Sennebogen crawler cranes capable of lifting between 100t & 180t. The cranes were provided to St. Helena by a European Union aid project.

On a typical voyage of the RMS St Helena they unload 60 containers (& load 60 empty containers) with a handling rate of 40 containers in a day, with the ability to handle up to 70 containers in a day.

The stevedoring & lighterage is carried out by Solomons & Company, a public limited company majority owned by the St Helena Government.  They employ 40 men to unload the RMS St Helena, with 19 men working aboard ship, 12 men working on the wharf, and 15 men manning the barges.