By James Heinz
One of the original founders of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society was the first port director for Milwaukee, Harry Brockel. Since that time, it has been our tradition to make the current Port director a member of the WMHS board.
The latest director of the Port of Milwaukee, or Port Milwaukee, is Jackie Q. Carter. I met her at the WMHS annual Christmas Tree Ship Dinner, which she and her family attended. I recently sat down with her at Port Milwaukee’s headquarters and interviewed her about her past and the future of Port Milwaukee. Director Carter was invited, nominated, and elected to the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s Board of Trustees. I told her that her duties as a member of the WMHS board will be light, as will her compensation.
WMHS has another connection with Port Milwaukee besides appointing the port director to our Board of Directors. Their headquarters at the south end of the Hoan Bridge is decorated with numerous ship models on permanent loan from WMHS.
Jackie Q. Carter was born and raised by her grandmother in the Washington Park neighborhood in Milwaukee. She attended several different schools before graduating from John Marshall High School in 1979. She graduated from MATC with a degree in accounting before getting her bachelor’s degree from Alverno College and her MBA from Concordia University.
In 2007 she began working for the city treasurer’s office. In 2014 she began working for the city budget office, and in 2017 she began working for Port Milwaukee. Her predecessor encouraged her to consider the position of director when he left, and she was appointed port director by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in 2023. She is the first woman and person of color to hold that position since the first commercial cargo vessel landed in Milwaukee in 1835.
Her job is a big one, as is the area she controls. I thought that the port was mostly just Jones Island. However, Port Milwaukee actually owns 467 acres. This includes the US Coast Guard station and Naval Reserve Center, who Director Carter describes as “really good tenants for us.” The Port extends all the way north “up to the steps of the Calatrava”. Discovery World, Lake Express, and Summerfest are tenants of the port as well as numerous private companies. It also controls the boat moorings at South Shore Yacht Club.
So, how is Port Milwaukee doing? Her answer: “doing well.” The port is “relatively stable” in terms of ship movements, which are down from 2022, which was an unusually busy year.
The Port Milwaukee 2022 annual report shows that 346 vessel movements occurred that year: 96 barges, 182 lakers, 35 foreign vessels, and 33 cruise ships. The port generated net profits of $1,117,000 above and beyond covering operational costs for the department.
Ship movements in and out of the Port are also recorded in tonnage. In 2023 some 2.5 million metric tons of shipping went in and out of the Port, a figure which seems very impressive to me. Ship movements are recorded in tonnage since ships vary in size and that is the metric the Corps of Engineers uses when making its decisions as to where and when to dredge shipping channels.
She believes that the new DeLong Company grain shipping facility at the south end of the inner harbor will help move more cargo and increase tonnage in and out of the port.
Perhaps the most impressive development has been the increase of cruise ships coming into Port Milwaukee in recent years. Director Carter said that she believes that we will see the same number of cruise ships in 2024 but more passengers since ships from the Viking cruise lines will make more stops and the Viking ships are larger and carry more passengers. Last year 30 cruise ships delivered 11,600 passengers to Port Milwaukee.
Right now, the largest cruise ships tie up on the west side of Jones Island in the inner harbor, immediately adjacent to the sewage treatment plant, which is probably not the best place to bring visitors to if you want to impress them. Nothing says romance and adventure like Milorganite.
Port Milwaukee is currently finalizing plans for a new cruise ship dock adjacent to the Lake Express dock. Actually, there will be two mooring spaces there. There is a current dock for medium sized Great Lakes cruise ships, which dock to the west behind where the Lake Express ferry ties up. The new mooring space will be along the east side of the Lake Express facility, with the ships mooring parallel to the shore line.
Port Milwaukee is also grantee of Foreign Trade Zone #41. According to the Port Milwaukee website: “As Grantee of Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) No. 41, Port Milwaukee’s goal is to encourage, facilitate, and expedite U.S. participation in international trade. Through the FTZ program, the impacts of import duties may be minimized in order to keep U.S. companies competitive in a global marketplace. FTZ No. 41 has the added benefit of creating and maintaining U.S. employment and fostering economic development in the State of Wisconsin.”
I told Director Carter that WMHS members really like boats. And Port Milwaukee has its own small fleet of boats to help it keep operating.
HARBOR SEAGULL photo by James Heinz
And now, thank you for tuning into this week’s episode of “CSI Cold Case: Port Milwaukee.” What was the cause of death for the legendary harbor workboat HARBOR SEAGULL, whose sinking in 2022 I chronicled in this blog? As it turns out the cause of death was the same as it was for my 100 year old father:
Old age.
At autopsy, the post mortem for the 60 year old HARBOR SEAGULL revealed “a lot of rust where the hull just rusted out and leaked.” Being 65 years old myself, I know just how the boat felt. Sometimes I feel like sinking to the bottom of the harbor too. The vessel still sits rather forlornly on stocks on Jones Island. Port Milwaukee has been repairing her using in house talent and they hope to refloat the boat in 2024.
In the absence of the HARBOR SEAGULL, Port Milwaukee has been relying on its other work boat, the JOEY D., named after long term harbormaster Joe Digiorgio.
Port Milwaukee often names its equipment after Milwaukeeans connected to the Port. Its two heavy lift cranes are named “Big Henry” and “Big John”, after former mayors Henry Maier and John Norquist.
And the port has another boat at its disposal, the survey vessel LARRY SULLIVAN, named after a chief engineer who worked for Port Milwaukee for 53 years. The SULLIVAN is a tailorable boat that conducts surveys of Port dock wall facilities. Director Carter said “We work with the State to keep the docks safe.”
And right now, it seems like Director Jackie Q. Carter is doing a good job keeping Port Milwaukee safe.
Photos courtesy of Port Milwaukee unless noted otherwise.
Story was originally posted on May 19, 2024
