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The night Crowley tied the American knot. George Talbot, American's West Coast sales manager, remembers it well. One of our best customers, Crowley Maritime, called early one afternoon with a big problem. There was a barge on the beach off Moclips, Washington, and Crowley needed two miles of 9" polypropylene rope fast— by 6:00 AM the next day, less than 18 hours away. They had to have polypropylene. Salvage tugs could only get within ^ two miles of the beach, so the ^ rope had to be light enough ^^^BjBfckg for a helicopter to pull it Jpi^^^^- from the beach to the tug. Crowley wanted the barge refloated quickly and the next high tide dictated the timing. The problem George faced was this: no one supplier or warehouse ever stocks two miles of 9" rope. That, by the way, is 18 54-inch reels weighing in at about 14,000 pounds. Well, he got half of it together by commandeering every available inch of rope in San Francisco — and finally the other half by scouring every available source |amco| in Los Angeles. But he still had to get all 14,000 pounds to Portland by 6:00 AM the next day. Back to the telephone. Ware- houses agreed to put in extra hours, special trucks were hired at overtime rates, a flight was found to move the L.A. consign- ment to San Francisco. Then, disaster. The only air- * freighter out of San ^idhBki Francisco k m - MANUFACTURING COMPANY CORDAGE DIVISION was scheduled •Bto leave before the L.A. '" flight arrived, and it was going east rather than north. George hit the phones again. Middle-of-the-night calls finally got the airfreighter di- verted north to Portland, then east. And every last inch of rope was deliv- ered in Portland before the 6:00 AM deadline. The rest of the story is Crowley's. They had trucks waiting at the airport and trans- ported the rope to the barge location. Vari- ous lengths were tied together with bow- lines, strung from the beach to the barge by helicopter and the cargo was successfully salvaged. George Talbot is very good at his job. Just like all the guys at our other 14 Service Centers. With American, it's the old story: the difficult we do right away, the impos- sible just takes a little longer. 206 Willow Avenue Honesdale, PA 18431 717/253-5860 200 Southpark Road Lafayette, LA 70117 318/837-9241 INDUSIR1N DBIWBJOfiS SERVICE CENTERS: BOSTON CHICAGO CLEVELAND JACKSONVILLE. LOS ANGELES "JEW ORLEANS EMERYVILLE. HOUSTON PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH. ST LOUIS SEATTLE TAMPA SAVANNAH February 1, 1981 Write 114 on Reader Service Card 15
