Page 51: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1969)

Philadelphia Section Meets At Navy Yard —SNAME Dedicates Plaque To NBTL Founder

Taking part in the April meeting of the Philadelphia Section, SNAME, were, left to right: G. H. Boyd, Section chairman; James J. Henry, SNAME president; Capt. F. W.

Gooch Jr., USN, commander, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and guest speaker; Comdr.

J. C. Reaves, USN, design superintendent, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and meeting coordinator; Kent C. Thornton, Section vice-chairman, and George Johnson, Section secretary-treasurer.

The Philadelphia Section of The

Society of Naval Architects and

Marine Engineers held its April meeting at the Commissioned Of- ficers' Mess on the Philadelphia

Naval Base. There were several special guests in attendance, nota- bly among them James J. Henry, national president of SNAME,

Vernon Olson of SNAME national headquarters, and two young ladies also from SNAME national head- quarters, Miss Betsy Byrnes and

Miss Lillian Degering.

Prior to the cocktail hour, the shipyard hosted a one-hour bus tour of some of its facilities. High- lighted during the tour was the re- serve fleet; the submarine facilities which included the marine rail- ways; the new steel handling fa- cilities ; drydocks 4 and 5, where the LCC-19 and the LST-1180 are under construction (both in Dry- dock 4) and where the aircraft car- rier, USS Intrepid, is currently un- dergoing overhaul, and the new sheet metal shop. Rounding out the tour was a visit to the shipyard's noted propeller shop.

The meeting was opened by the chairman, G. H. Boyd, who intro- duced the noted guests. He then announced the new officers of the

Philadelphia Section for the com- ing year, 1969-1970: chairman—

Kent C. Thornton; vice-chair- man—George A. Johnson; secre- tary-treasurer—B. B. Cook Jr., and the executive committee—Walter

G. Neal Jr., T. J. Kavanagh, and

G. H. Boyd.

The coordinator for the technical session was Comdr. J. C. Reaves,

USN, who is the design superin- tendent, Philadelphia Naval Ship- yard.

The paper, entitled "The Navy's

Program for Shipyard Moderniza- tion," was presented by Capt. F.

W. Gooch Jr., USN, commander,

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

In beginning the presentation,

Captain Gooch gave the back- ground for the modernization pro- gram for the naval shipyards. The inception of this program began approximately five years ago and resulted in awarding certain pri- vate engineering contracts to make surveys and recommend actions for shipyard modernizations.

Noting that the Philadelphia Na- val Shipyard has served as a pilot in this program, the shipyard com- mander proceeded to highlight sev- eral major programs which have been or will be instituted, result- ing in an increase in this shipyard's capacity for naval ship construc- tion, conversion, and repair. The shipyard modernizing is based not only on the recommendations of the study but also on projects initiated and programmed by the shipyard itself.

Summarizing those moderniza- tion programs which have been completed or are nearing comple- tion, Captain Gooch noted the ma- jor relocation of crane tracks at one of the shipyard's large drydocks, which now permits efficient servic- ing of the large aircraft carriers whose overhanging flight deck had blocked a portion of the crane tracks. Continuing in this line, he cited the installation of a handling facility which will provide almost complete automatic handling and processing of steel plates. He out- lined the flow of the steel plate from the point of receipt to final installation in a ship as the new facility will handle it.

The latest facility nearing com- pletion is the sheet metal shop which will allow much greater ef- ficiency and improved working conditions, as well as a greatly in- creased area for storing sheet and shape material processed in this shop.

Looking into the future, the ship- yard commander summarized the building program—a new shop to house all electrical and electronics operations; a freight and passenger elevator in two of the drydocks; a service building in way of one of the major pier-drydock areas; an engineering/management building which will locate in one building the engineering and management personnel presently scattered in various areas of six different build- ings; combining the structural shops in one building by enlarging the more modern of the two pres- ent structural shops; combining the machine shop complex in one building, and a processing facility to handle steel shapes much in the same way that steel plate will be handled.

Earlier in the day, dignitaries from the Philadelphia Naval Ship- yard; Fourth Naval District; Na- val Ship Engineering Center, Phila- delphia Division (formerly the Na- val Boiler and Turbine Lab), and

SNAME were present at the statue of Rear Adm. George W. Melville,

USN, to officially dedicate the plaque provided by SNAME. The shipyard commander, Capt. F. W.

Gooch Jr., gave a brief biography of the admiral who was the founder of the Naval Boiler and Turbine

Lab and who served as vice-presi- dent of SNAME from 1894 to 1912.

The plaque was officially dedicated by James J. Henry, national presi- dent of SNAME.

Hillman Appoints

J. Dawson Provance

Production Manager

Hillman Barge and Construction

Company, Brownsville, Pa., has announced the appointment of J.

Dawson Provance as production manager.

Mr. Provance joined Hillman at the firm's Alicia Marine Ways in

January, 1943, as a mechanic. He became a foreman in the fabricat- ing shop in 1948, was promoted to general shop foreman in 1953, and in 1955 became shop superintend- ent.

Mr. Provance is active in boat- ing, and is a member of the U.S.

Coast Guard Auxiliary, for which he is a courtesy examiner. He is also a member of the U.S. Power

Squadron.

The plaque placed on the statue of Rear Adm. George

W. Melville, USN, by the Society. /setts s/^//*/^^ ppcz&A/f /A/ 77/e

Statue of Rear Adm. George

W. Melville in Navy Yard.

June 1, 1969 53