Queen Elizabeth II Quay
Encyclopedia
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
. It is located on a promontory called Fourah Point (also known as Farran Point, Farren Point, and Foura Point) on the southern bank of the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
of the Sierra Leone River
Sierra Leone River
The Sierra Leone River is a river estuary on the Atlantic Ocean in Western Sierra Leone. It is formed by the Port Loko Creek and Rokel River and is between 4 and 10 miles wide and 25 miles long. It holds the major ports of Queen Elizabeth II Quay and Pepel. The estuary is also important for...
between Destruction Bay and Cline Bay within the suburb of Cline Town
Cline Town, Sierra Leone
Cline Town, Sierra Leone, which used to be known as Granville Town, was established in 1787 by the London-based Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. They arranged for the transport of London's so-called Black Poor to Sierra Leone where they were amongst its original settlers...
directly to the east of central Freetown. It is the larger of two harbors within Freetown, the other harbor known variously as Government Wharf, Freetown Port, or simply "the harbor" and is Freetown's more centrally located harbor. Queen Elizabeth II Quay has sometimes been the called the third largest natural harbor
Harbor
A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial...
in the world— this is inaccurate in two respects: 1.) the QE II Quay is not itself a natural harbor but a man-made port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
or "quay", and 2.) the Quay is a very small feature of the river estuary on which it was built— it is this estuary which has carved out what is the largest natural harbor on the African continent but still puts this harbor behind Port Jackson
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and several natural harbors claiming the title for world's second largest, including Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality.-Harbour description:The harbour is called Jipugtug by the Mi'kmaq first nation, anglisized as Chebucto...
in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being the Frome. The harbour has a long history of human settlement...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and Cork Harbour
Cork Harbour
Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...
in County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Although the government of Sierra Leone assumed management of the Quay in 1964, it decided to privatize the property in 2007, thus converting the port from a "service" port into a "land lord" port (in the service port model, the port authority and operator are one and the same; in a landlord port model, the port authority retains the port's assets but leases them to private individuals or organizations; the two other models recognized by the World Bank are the tool port model where the port authority selectively leases certain port assets, and the private services model where the port authority and operator are entirely privately owned).
Design and history
Construction of the Quay began in 1953 on what was once called Fourah Bay and took more than six years to complete. The entire bay was eventually filled in, creating a large uninhabited reclamation area to the south of the quay. The final structure is 1,067 meters end to end with a draught allowanceDraft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 30 feet. The Sierra Leone Railway used to have a large terminal and headquarters nearby but these were removed in the 1970s. The quay includes six numbered berths designed to accommodate either passenger or cargo ships, and has several warehouses and extensive outdoor storage space. Repeated military invasions of Freetown during the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone Civil War
Sierra Leone Civil War
The Sierra Leone Civil War began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front , with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia , intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government...
resulted in significant damage to the quay's facilities in the late 1990s, including a crater within Berth 5 (which remained inoperable and under repair ten years later). The port has never had adequate equipment for the loading and unloading of cargo, and has faced numerous other structural and organizational problems: on October 29 of 2007, for example, the port's then only forklift broke down after being filled with gasoline which had been diluted with water, causing a 48-hour total standstill in the movement of cargo containers. As of 2009 the port's stevedoring facilities
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
include two forklifts
Forklift truck
A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing...
, one "super-reacher", four reach stackers
Reach Stacker
A Reach Stacker is one of the most flexible handling solutions whether to operate a small terminal or a medium sized port.Reach stackers are able to transport a container in short distances very quickly and pile them in various rows depending on its access....
, five German MAFI trucks (each with a carrying capacity of 50 tons), one tug master, one pilot cutter, and a fire engine. It has ship chandler
Ship chandler
A ship chandler is a retail dealer in special supplies or equipment for ships.For traditional sailing ships items that could be found in a chandler might include: rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch , linseed oil, whale oil, tallow, lard, varnish, twine, rope and cordage, hemp, oakum, tools A ship...
facilities, but no shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
.
Though formally numbered 1 through 6, the quay actually contains seven berths, assigned the numbers 1, 1A, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Berths 1, 1A, and 2 each include one small storage shed; Berths 3 and 4 each contain one large warehouse; Berths 5 and 6 consist only of outdoor cargo stacking areas.
On September 26th of 2009 the ro-ro vessel MV Oriental Hero, a Hong Kong-based cargo ship flying a Panamanian flag of convenience
Flag of convenience
The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the...
and carrying a cargo of trucks, trailers, and bagged cement collided with and damaged Berth 1A and 2. Berth 2 remained operational but part of Berth 1A had to be closed for repairs. The impact was strong enough to form cracks in the quay's administrative building.