Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1969)

General Dynamics Launches First Ship To Make Full Use Of New Facilities At Quincy The United States Navy replenishment fleet-oiler Kansas City, "first graduate of a new school of shipbuilding," was christened on June 28 at the General Dynamics shipyard, Quincy, Mass. The 659-foot Kansas City is the first ship whose construction has made full use of all the new shipbuilding innovations and facilities placed into operation since General Dynamics acquired the shipyard five years ago. More than 5,000 persons watched Mrs. Harry Darby, wife of a Kansas City, Kansas industrialist and former United States senator, christen the new ship and send it sliding down building ways into the Fore River. United States Congressman William J. Ran-dall of Independence, Mo., whose Fourth Mis-souri District includes a portion of Kansas City, was the principal speaker. After her christening, Kansas City was moved to an outfitting pier for completion of equipment installation and testing. She will be delivered to the Navy in early 1970. Kansas City, whose keel was laid April 18, 1968, occupied her building position for 14 months, compared to the 21 months and 24 months of two predecessors (Wichita and Milwaukee) in the replenishment fleet-oiler class. Six key developments that speeded construc-tion of Kansas City include: 1. The Autokon System, which provides computerized lofting of ships' lines and com-puterized production of punched tapes to di-rect machines that automatically cut steel plates into desired shapes. 2. A new assembly line that has brought speed and efficiency to production of stiffened MARSEILLES, FRANCE GROIGNARD SHIPYARDS P. O. BOX 829 COLBERT PHONE 501061 ? TELEX 41815 ? 9 GRAVING DOCKS UP TO 190,000 DWT (1050' X 164') ? 1 FLOATING DOCK 40,000 T. LIFTING CAPACITY ? TANK CLEANING, GAS FREEING STATION ? SANDBLASTING COATING SPECIALISTS ? ANNUAL AND SPECIAL SURVEYS ? HULL AND ENGINE REPAIRS OF ANY SIZE AND KIND ? OWN CAST IRON & BRONZE FOUNDRY ? BRANCH AT THE OIL PORT OF LAVERA FOR VOYAGE REPAIRS USA REPRESENTATIVE M. RIBACOFF 56 WEST 45 STREET N.Y., N.Y. 10036 (212 MU 2-7256) steel panels, the basic element of the units that comprise a ship. 3. An automatic shot blast facility in which units weighing up to 75 tons are thoroughly cleaned for painting in minutes rather than hours; also, a paint spray building in which the units are painted under climatically con-trolled conditions. The two give the Quincy division an all-weather cleaning and painting capability. 4. An assembly area for building units up to 150 tons in weight and as large as 90 by 41 by 33 feet. This new capability has allowed a reduction in the number of units per ship in the Kansas City from 360 to 225. By the time the sixth ship of this class is built, the num-ber of units will be down to 193. 5. The pre-outfitting of units with nearly all piping, wiring, ventilation and small machin-ery before they are erected as part of the ship. 6. Use of low-power lasers for structural alignments and installation of propellers, pro-peller shafts and other heavy equipment. The lasers result in a significant advance in accur-acy and consequently provide great savings in time and costs. Sea-Land Names Hamilton Executive Vice-President William B. Hamilton Jr. has been appointed executive vice-president, administration, Sea-Land Service, Inc., according to an announce-ment by M. R. McEvoy, president of Sea-Land Service. Mr. Hamilton assumes responsibility for finance, information systems and personnel. Mr. Hamilton started with Sea-Land Service in 1967 as vice-president-controller. He was elected vice-president and treasurer of McLean Industries, Inc., parent holding company of Sea-Land in May, 1968, in which capacity he still continues. He was previously affiliated with the Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing Company as vice-president-finance. A grad-uate of Vanderbilt University, he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Financial Executives Institute and past chairman of the Methods and Pro-cedures Committee of the National Account-ing and Finance Council. Sea-Land Service, subsidiary of McLean In-dustries, a wholly owned subsidiary of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, is a container-ized freight service with 41 vessels serving 31 ports throughout the world. KING INSPECTS SHIPYARD?H.M. King Gustof Adolf of Sweden recently visited Gotaverken in connection with a visit to Goteborg. He took a very keen interest in the Arendal yard, where the 86-year-o!d king studied the workshops and docks for more than one hour, and was shown among other things the hulls of two 227,000-ton tankers now being built at Arendal. The king is shown with Gotaverken representatives, Nils Svensson, manag-ing director, Hilding Nielsen, former managing director and member of the board and Alf Skanberg, manager of the Arendal yard. 16 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News