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Early Tuesday

— Clearly, Greg Brooks touched a nerve.

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Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer: Julia Cote organized relief supplies to be loaded aboard the Sea Hunter at the Portland Fish Pier on Tuesday, January 26, 2010. Greg Brooks, owner of the treasure hunting ship, will sail the ship to Haiti next week to bring the supplies to Les Cayes, a town on the southern coast. Cote is Brook's assistant.

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Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer: Greg Brooks is the owner of Subsea Research and the treasure hunting ship Sea Hunter. Brooks will sail the ship to Les Cayes, Haiti next week to deliver relief supplies.

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''It's great, isn't it? I knew people would come through,'' said Brooks, marveling as a steady procession of vehicles packed with crutches and walkers, Cheerios and gallon cans of B&M baked beans, shoes and sneakers, clothing and Lord knows what else pulled up to his 220-foot treasure-hunting ship, Sea Hunter, and added to the mountain of goods bound for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Great doesn't begin to describe it.

Some wondered whether Brooks was dreaming when he announced last week that Sub Sea Research, the treasure-hunting company he runs out of his home in Gorham, was embarking on a grass-roots effort to bring aid to an orphanage in Les Cayes, on the south coast of Haiti.

Skeptics said it's not that simple -- you don't just load up a small ship and sail into the teeth of a global disaster without some obstacle or another bursting your humanitarian bubble.

Yet Brooks stood on the Portland Fish Pier on Tuesday, watching his 12-man crew hoist pallet after pallet aboard with the Sea Hunter's 40-ton crane, more certain than ever of one simple reality.

''We're going,'' he said.

Originally, the plan was to depart from the Sea Hunter's winter dock in Boston, then stop at a staging area in Miami to take on relief supplies and much-needed diesel fuel for the Haitian rescue effort. From there, the ship would travel 680 miles southeast to Les Cayes, a city of 70,000 that grows bigger by the day as refugees from Port-au-Prince flee the devastated capital.

But as calls poured in from Mainers who wanted to help, Brooks ordered his crew to sail overnight to Portland so people could put their donations on board.

The Sea Hunter tied up at its free dock space -- courtesy of Vessel Services -- just after 11 a.m. Tuesday. Almost immediately, the cars, vans, pickups and occasional box truck began to arrive -- all stuffed with taped cardboard boxes, bulging plastic trash bags and stackable containers with phrases like ''kids shoes'' and ''kitchenware'' and ''blankets'' written on the sides.

John and Marcia Reynolds drove up from their home in Biddeford with all of their camping gear piled high in the back -- including the tent they took on a cross-country trip 30 years ago.

''It's the right thing to do,'' said John as he and his wife lugged the tent, the two wood-frame cots, the Coleman stove and lantern to the staging area. ''We're going to donate money, too, but they need this.''

Added Marcia, ''The cots are very comfortable. We're happy to give it all to people who are so desperate for shelter.''

Delivery after delivery, the theme was the same: It's one thing to donate money, which virtually all of those interviewed said they already had done. It's quite another to go through your home, cull out what you can live without and put it on a ship, knowing it will soon be put to the best of possible uses.

''The kids down there are going to be able to put these sneakers right on their feet,'' said Rick Woodbury of Scarborough as he hoisted one of several boxes, all packed Monday evening by his girlfriend. ''This is great that (Brooks) is doing this. It's fantastic.''

Susan Cole of Gray heard about Brooks' quest on the news Monday evening. By early Tuesday morning, she was filling up her cart at the Marden's discount store in Gray with blankets, flashlights, you name it.

The store employees eventually caught wind of what she was doing and, just like that, Marden's upped her load by 30 percent at no additional charge.

''I know there are people in this country who need help also,'' Cole said. ''But these are children we're talking about down there. And any child needs to be warm and fed.''

Then there was Mark McSweeney of South Portland, who read the news reports about Brooks last week and thought, ''Nah, that's not going to happen.''

On Tuesday, he showed up with a brand-new haircutting kit he'd been meaning to donate to a shelter in Boston -- if only he could get down there.

''Maybe a hospital can use it, I don't know,'' McSweeney said.

And so it went into the afternoon. Wilson Moving Co. of Portland used a large box truck to bring in the fruits of two donation drives -- one from Intermed in Portland, the other from Shawnee Peak in Bridgton. Nearby, 31,000 bottles of water from Hannaford Bros. awaited the forklift.

Thirty recently replaced, hand-cranked hospital beds were on their way from the Haven Health Care Center in Cape Elizabeth, transported by volunteers from the Faith Christian Church in Gardiner.

A mobile medical unit was en route from the Maine Migrant Health Program in Augusta. Its destination: a hospital in Milot, Haiti, that is supported by the Portland-based charitable organization Konbit Sante.

Through it all, the Sea Hunter's 12-man crew filled the lift pallet, hoisted load after load onto the broad, wooden deck and set about sorting things out -- cooking oil over here, crutches, canes and walkers down there, food here, clothing there

''If you'd seen this boat a week ago, you'd have never thought we were going to Haiti,'' said the chief engineer, Brian Ryder, 48, of Bath. ''We even had a sub on it.''

Ryder has made many trips to Haiti in his 12 years with Sub Sea Research. He has numerous friends there -- a few of whom he's been unable to locate since the magnitude-7.0 earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince on Jan 12.

''So it's more than just a relief effort,'' Ryder said. ''It's personal for us.''

Ryder's biggest concern before departing Portland: securing the parts he needs to expand the Sea Hunter's capacity for turning seawater into desperately needed drinking water. The ship can now produce 1,200 gallons of fresh water per day. With the retrofit, that will increase to 12,000 gallons.

Even the Coast Guard got into the act. Shortly after the Sea Hunter docked, Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Ferrie, chief of the Inspections Division for Sector Northern New England, came aboard and issued a permit so visitors can legally board the ship while it's docked in Portland.

Ferrie also told Brooks that Coast Guard officials have been notified from here to Miami that the Sea Hunter -- which soon will look like a commercial cargo ship -- is officially a ''recreational vessel'' legitimately en route to Haiti.

''We're just trying to pave the way to make sure they don't have any problems,'' Ferrie said.

As of Monday evening, Brooks said, the plan was for the Sea Hunter to leave Portland on Thursday bound for Miami -- with a possible one-day stop in Boston to pick up a load of donated generators.

The ship will then stop for a day or two in Miami to take on diesel fuel and pick up three 40-foot containers of food and medical supplies from Stop Hunger Now, a North Carolina-based group with a presence in Haiti. By the middle of next week, Brooks said, they'll set out on the two-day voyage to Les Cayes.

At the dock Tuesday, the markings on the Sea Hunter's hull showed the vessel was drawing about 8 feet. Once it's fully loaded -- in addition to 120,000 gallons of fuel and 68,000 gallons of water, it can transport 845 tons of cargo on deck and 300 tons in its two cargo holds -- the ship will ride at least 4 feet deeper.

In other words, Brooks and his crew still have plenty of work to do.

Brooks, who launched a smaller rescue mission to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, could only shake his head and smile as the jam-packed vehicles arrived and departed and arrived and departed

''I've never done anything like this before,'' he said, adjusting his white hard hat. ''But hey, you do what you have to do.''

And then, with the entire state of Maine at your back, you do more.

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:

bnemitz@mainetoday.com