The Hillsborough County Sheriff's office said it removed "several items of concern" from a metal pallet Thursday and transported them to a range in Lithia where technicians detonated them.

Once that happened, investigators noticed a white substance which turned out to be a substance that can be used in fireworks, fertilizer, and explosives.

Now authorities are saying the compound itself is not an explosive, and it could have gotten there through a previous shipment of fireworks.

The chemical's presence on the pallet confirms the alert by multiple K-9s today at the Port of Tampa.

Homeland security is continuing to investigate the incident.

Passengers boarded the Royal Caribbean cruise ship after a few hours delay.

Shortly after 9 a.m., deputies say a specially-trained K-9 alerted to an item on the Terminal 3 dock near a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. A second K-9 was brought in and also alerted to the same item, according to deputies.

"For every dog to consistently hit like that, we've talked about it amongst ourselves that was not a mistake. But I’m not saying there was an explosive in that truck," said Col. Jim Previtera, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Colonel Previtera says bomb technicians manually searched the pallet and truck and did not find anything. The truck was delivering liquor from a warehouse in Miami that royal Caribbean maintains.

"There was no device found. There was no explosive material found. That doesn't mean that the dogs error-ed or were wrong," said Previtera. "We did impound a couple of items that we will remove and our technicians will look at further. But at this time we have no reason to believe that there's anything in that that poses a threat."

Previtera said he was told Royal Caribbean’s warehouse is secure.

The cruise ship staff was not evacuated during the search and all the passengers had already disembarked.

Cruise ship passengers didn't seem to mind the extra precautions taken with the package.  Many of them waited across the street from the ship with their luggage.

"The ship is going to be the safest one out there. That's all I can say," said Doris Sabourin, passenger, who said she wasn't bothered by the wait or worried.

"I think they're being cautious and I think that's the thing that they need to do," said another passenger, Betty Huth.