POINTE BLANCHE--The first cargo ship to St. Maarten was Herodote after the passing of Hurricane Earl and Tropical Storm Fiona, from French shipping line CMA CGM.

The ship was on an alternate schedule but was re-routed Thursday after the all-clear was given by St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies, signalling that the water draft of the approach and at the quay wall had not changed with the passing of the tropical weather systems earlier this week.

Herodote berthed alongside the quay wall at 12:00pm and began offloading cargo at 1:00pm.

CMA-CGM St. Maarten General Manager Liliane Hohl said the ship was given "immediate instructions to re-route to call on St. Maarten" instead of carrying all cargo to Trinidad as was planned due to the storm interruptions.

CMA CGM Stadt Munchen (Cagema) had omitted St. Maarten from its shipping rotation and discharges all cargo in Rio Haina on September 1 and reloaded all cargo on Cagema Mainliner Conrad which will be here on September 8.

CMA CGM Cap Canaille will be in port on Sunday, September 5. On that day, a cargo ship from Tropical Shipping is also to be in port. That ship was originally slated to be the first cargo vessel in port.

With the arrival of Herodote, shipping line Operations Manager Michael Leysner said, "The commitment of CMA CGM has been showed again by it always being one of the first shipping lines to return to the island after every major hurricane during the past decades."

The normal CMA CGM schedule for the shipping line will resume next week, barring no issue with other tropical storm systems.

The bricked part of the Captain David Quay was battered by the waves created by Earl. The some-25 metres of the quay wall, made of concrete, was intact and that was where the behemoth cargo ship berthed.

The damage to the cruise and cargo facilities was not as extensive as those caused by Hurricane Omar in October 2008. Mingo had said, "Damage was limited due to improved designs, in particular for the cargo sections."