Maritime News and Comment

August 2007

    NASSCO MAY BUILD 14 T-AKEs.  General Dynamics has announced that it has negotiated prices with the Navy for T-AKEs 10 through 14.  Read the announcement here.  Since the original contract included options for up to 12 ships, it can be assumed that this really means that they renegotiated the prices for numbers 10 through 12 and added two more.  GD says the total value is about $2.5 billion, or an average of $500 million each.  The price for #1 was just over $400 million and the average price for #s 2 through 9 is just under $300 million.  Of course they have probably reset the escalation clock for #s 10 through 14 but it's still a bit of a jump from $300 million to $500 million.  August 23, 2007.

    EASTERN SIGNS WITH LABORDE.  Reliable sources say that Laborde Marine has ordered two 280-foot PSVs from Eastern Shipbuilding.  Pretty big for a PSV.  Prices and deliveries still to be disclosed.  August 21, 2007.

    LPD 19 TRIALS SUCCESSFUL.  The Builders Trials of the third of the "San Antonio" class, the future USS "Mesa Verde", (LPD 19), were extended by a day but were apparently very successful.  Read the company's puff release here.  The trial card count was only 5,500, compared to over 17,000 on each of the first two ships, and about half of them are minor.  Well, good.  This ship was wholly Ingalls-built, so there's a message here for the folks at Avondale.  It's also relevant that these trials were delayed and delayed in order to be sure that the ship would be really ready, but shouldn't that always be the case?  August 18, 2007.

    LPD 19 READY FOR TRIALS.  The third of the "San Antonio" class, the future USS "Mesa Verde", (LPD 19), heads out for three or four days of Builders' Trials on Monday.  Word is that she is a vision compared to her misbegotten predecessors, almost good enough for commissioning.  Let's hope that there will be correspondingly good news at the end of the week.  August 11, 2007.

    FIRE ON LMSR IN BOSTON.  The Boston Globe reports that there has been a fire on the USNS "Sisler", (T-AKR 311).  The ship, which is one of the NASSCO-built LMSRs, is in the South Boston graving dock, undergoing an overhaul by Boston Ship Repair.  Read the article here.  August 10, 2007.

    ICGS LIVES!  The idea that the Coast Guard would be taking control of Deepwater procurement took a hit this week as it modified its contract with ICGS to provide $337 million for the third National Security Cutter and $255 million extra for the first two, which had previously been priced at $300 million and $144 million, respectively.  This smells like a cost increase of over 100%.  $337 million for a 418-ft cutter!  Good grief: these are megayacht prices!  Maybe the Coast Guard and NGSS need to call in that well known, back-of-an-envelope naval architect, Congressman Gene Taylor, to redesign these ships.  Read the Coast Guard's announcement here.  August 10, 2007.

    DELTA QUEEN TO BE RETIRED.  Majestic America Line has announced that the 80-year-old "Delta Queen", built in Stockton CA in 1927, will be retired in November 2008, as a result of the expiration of her special exemption from certain safety regs.  Read the press release here.  August 6, 2007.

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