How sweet it is

Making pure cane sugar for over 100 years along Carquinez Strait:



The raw sugar comes from ships coming from Hawaii (no ships today).





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Interesting!*** Reminds me of the Domino Suger Plant on the East River in NYC.

Catering to sweet tooths on both coasts.

JohnP

Mark we saw a barge piled with white stuff shortly before we passed the sugar plant. We were thinking it was salt, surely it is not sugar?? do you know??

If sugar, it was the height of folly.

Perhaps this vessel would be more practical for carrying sugar:



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Jennifer, perhaps that barge was from Colombia?

Giggitoni wrote:
Jennifer, perhaps that barge was from Colombia?

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*If it was that would solve the Debit Ceiling Problem for sure.

markpierce wrote:
Perhaps this vessel would be more practical for carrying sugar:

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*This looks like a cross between a submersible drydock and a blimp hanger like they have over on the peninsula. *Then there is the helipad on top. *What the heck is this thing?

scarletbison wrote:
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*This looks like a cross between a submersible drydock and a blimp hanger like they have over on the peninsula. *Then there is the helipad on top. *What the heck is this thing?

*That's what I'd like to know.* It has a retractable roof and a large "movie screen" end door at the stern.* Its volume is tremendous, particularly for its length.



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markpierce wrote:scarletbison wrote:
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*This looks like a cross between a submersible drydock and a blimp hanger like they have over on the peninsula. *Then there is the helipad on top. *What the heck is this thing?

*That's what I'd like to know.* It has a retractable roof and a large "movie screen" end door at the stern.* Its volume is tremendous, particularly for its length.



**I found it!! *Search HMB-1 *on Google (or BING)

scarletbison wrote:
I found it!! *Search HMB-1 *on Google (or BING)

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*Thanks!* Now my mind is at ease.* This submersible*barge's pal Glomar Explorer was also at the Mothball Fleet in the 1980s, but has been gone for some time. ...* Seems the CIA has been responsible for creating interesting vessels.

markpierce wrote:
The raw sugar comes from ships coming from Hawaii (no ships today).

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I have good friends who work in Hawaii and they tell me*the sugar industry is virtually dead over there.* They tell me there is a bit of cane still grown on Maui and*Kauai but for the most part cane is no longer a viable crop.* The labor is far too expensive.**Cane*now comes mostly from South America, the Carribean, and*India.

I've been told that the days are numbered for the few remaining cane fields in Hawaii.* So if that C&H plant is even still operating they're not getting much cane from the islands.* When I lived there cane was grown everywhere on every island except Lanai and Molokai.* Oahu alone had several operating mills and there was a small C&H refinery in Honolulu*that made white and brown sugar for the island market.*

But all the cane fields on Oahu have long since* been left fallow or plowed under for housing developments.* So I suspect that if any ships come from Hawaii*to the C&H refinery in SFO Bay they are few and far between these days.

BTW, having been in sugar mills on Oahu many times as a kid and filmed in them later in the 1970s, the raw. unrefined sugar that is sent to the refinery in California is not white.* It's a sort of golden brown and extremely coarse, like the coarse sea salt you can buy in stores*that's marked*"Not fit for human consumption."**The raw sugar that goes to the refineries*is*what comes out of the centrifuges that spin the water out of it after it's been crushed out of the cane and boiled down.* I've eaten it off the conveyor belt that took it to the trucks that hauled it to the port to be loaded on the ships to go the refinery in Mark's photos, and at that point it doesn't taste like sugar at all.* It tastes like very strong molasses.


-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 20th of July 2011 11:13:41 PM

When I visited the Hawaiian Islands several years ago, we passed through a vast sugar cane field.* Forget*which island (Maui?, visited five that trip), but we passed by actor Tom Selleck's home. ....* Yeah, I agree that agriculture is almost dead in the Hawaiian Islands.* Vast lands are fallow.*


-- Edited by markpierce on Thursday 21st of July 2011 05:30:04 PM

There are still around 35000 acres of sugar production on Maui alone. Matson runs a ship (an ITB actually) from the islands to the C&H plant on a regular run. They carried something around 150,000 tons last year not counting molasses.

I used to sail for Matson and the ships had molasses cargo tanks. When we had containers full of pineapple, the scent from them and the tank vents made it smell like a giant pina colada.

markpierce wrote:
Seems like life has been made too easy to work in the fields.* (Maybe the minimum wage and not-to-work benefits are*too high.)

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*You should take that crap to OTDE.

But before you do, spend a couple of minutes looking at the world's sugar industry and both foreign and domestic competition from beet sugar production.

Hawaiian sugar plantations are among the most productive in the world and their workers are among the highest paid and greatly exceeded minimum wage since way back in the 1960s.

RickB wrote:
Hawaiian sugar plantations are among the most productive in the world and their workers are among the highest paid and greatly exceeded minimum wage since way back in the 1960s.

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Rick's right, this is sort of OTDE stuff but since it's here....* One of the issues in Hawaii was just that.* The cane and pineapple workers were (I recall my mother telling me in the 1960s when she was the equivelant of the public relations director for the City and County of Honlulu which is the whole island of Oahu) the highest paid agricultural workers in the US.* Perhaps they still are, I don't know.* But this was a signficant reason the big firms--- Dole and Delmonte for pineapple and the various sugar growers--- began looking elsewhere to grow their crops.

The 1960s saw the peak of sugar production in Hawaii--- it's been in steady decline since then.

I suspect one reason there is still some cane grown on Maui and Kauai is that to date*there is little other demand for the land, so it is still somewhat cost effective to grow cane there.* Also the industry has succeeded in enhancing the brand and image of "cane sugar" over the other kinds--- beet and corn syrup--- so perhaps the slightly higher price this enhanced branding commands also helps keep this last remnant of Hawaii's sugar industry alive.* Sort of like Wendy's and their "sea salt" french fries.

Another reason Hawaii's sugar industry continues to hang on is as Rick stated--- it's the most productive place in the world to grow cane.* Soil, water, and climate all combined to produce yields of 10 to 20 tons of sugar*per acre.* Also the growing season is two years, not one like most places, which reduces the amount of costly field work.

But, my friends in Hawaii*tell me, sugar's days in the islands are numbered, which would mean that wonderful old refinery in California's days are numbered, too, unless they also get raw sugar from other regions.* If production eventually ends I hope they will at least preserve the building.* It's a classic example of late 19th century- early 20th century industrial architecture.

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-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 21st of July 2011 06:33:24 PM

C&H'S Puunene plantation on Maui is the only mill left operating in the islands, last mill to close was the Gay & Robinson mill on Kawai a couple of years ago.
At one time Hawaii produced over a million tons of sugar now it is under 200,000 tons. High labor costs, difficulties in mechanization, were partially responsible for the demise of the industry.
The US imports about half of the sugar it consumes, the rest is produced here from sugar beets, and sugar cane.
Steve W.

scarletbison wrote:markpierce wrote:That's what I'd like to know.* It has a retractable roof and a large "movie screen" end door at the stern.* Its volume is tremendous, particularly for its length.

**I found it!! *Search HMB-1 *on Google (or BING)

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http://w3.the-kgb.com/dante/military/hmb1.html

That vessel certainly has had an interesting history.* Great find!!