Expanding Shipyards
There’s a lot of talk about modernizing/upgrading/adding to the shipyards that we have to support the Navy better and to make sure our Merchant fleet has a place to get repaired. I think it’s all really grand ideas. One especially said we need to build more dry docks. I’ll address this one pretty quick. Why build one?:
https://horizonship.com/ship-category/barges-for-sale/floating-dry-docks-for-sale/
As you can see, there’s a LOT of large drydocks capable of handling every ship with have with the exception of aircraft carriers. Since we only have 12 of them I’m guessing that we have adequate graving docks (as opposed to floating dry docks).
What we really need to do are three things, one fairly easy and the other not so much. First, we need to modernize our yards. We need to get top of the line equipment and facilities, plate rolls and shears, benders, cutting tables, welding panel lines (an area where production welding of sub-assemblies is done) that uses as much automation as possible. Work is much easier to do when we have the best tools available.
Second, the yards need the best direction possible when given a contract to bid on and to perform to. That means experienced, qualified people writing the specifications and based on actual ship checks of shipboard conditions. Too many times I went to the ship to look at a job and the conditions on the ship looked nothing like what was specified in the item. Occasionally this was because the ship was at sea and the item was generated by a “2Kilo” report, a damage report submitted by ships force. These we can live with. Too many, though, are just plain dumb mistakes by whoever writes the specification, mistakes or pure laziness from not wanting to crawl around a ship. If I find the actual conditions are not as described, I have to write a condition report. This report goes into the system and eventually ends up on a “Ship Building Specialists” desk. He has to go to the ship, usually meeting me, and go over the actual conditions. Then he has to basically write a change order (called an RCC) to clarify what are actual work is. And if there’s more work than the original scope called for, we have to negotiate a price. All that means extra time in an availability that doesn’t allow for extra time. To the point, the more accurate the specifications are, the smoother things go.
Third, and this is the tough one, is the “Industrial Base”…meaning people like me. Someone willing to do a hard, dirty and possibly dangerous job and do it reasonably well for less money than a plumber makes. I’m not complaining. Being a shipfitter was my vocation and I truly enjoyed almost all of what I did. But did I get rich doing it? Lord, no, but that wasn’t the point. I can proudly say I accomplished two life goals I set for myself as a young man. But I’m not every yardbird. Most of them are there to make a living and know there’s zero glory in it, just getting a little beat up and dirty and do it all again the next day. Worse, the threat of layoff always loomed on the horizon. The point to all this is there aren’t very many people who want to do this for a living today. Kids today think they can sit at a keyboard and make a buck, and maybe they’re right. I noticed over the last 20 years of my career than we were getting fewer and fewer young people. The median age of the company I worked for when I retired in 2018 was near 50. That’s not good. Sure, we had a lot of experienced people…and they were leaving.
So while it’s great to talk about modernizing and expanding shipyard capacity, what you also need to get serious about is the people who you want to do the work. Federal government needs to do two things:
First, try to rationalize the repair cycles so shipyard work isn’t feast and famine. A stable workforce is a very capable tool to use. One that has to hold a core of craftsmen and then surge to hire people off the street is gambling that a) they’ll get enough skilled people and b) the core can bear the burden of watching these temps who are probably making more money than the regulars. Please don’t say it can’t be done. It might be hard to do this but it’s not impossible.
Second, invest in your workforce!!! The Federal government needs to provide incentives/tax cuts/payments to help train new people in the shipyard trades. Pay apprentices a living wage to learn a trade in the shipyards. A lot won’t make the cut but we have to offer them the chance. There will be jobs for these young people. A lot of yardbirds are retiring. Keep this in mind: I could train a willing person to be able to do quite a bit in one year…but I never considered myself at the top of my game until I was at the 10 year mark. This work is complicated, especially doing Navy work because of the dense specifications, milstandards, really understand Standard Items and just knowing how to work on a Navy ship without making the ship more unhappy than they already are with having yardbirds all over a ship. So in my not so humble opinion, quit screwing around and get busy with this!