Page 6: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 15, 1973)

Marathon's New Shipyard- (Continued from page 7)

After completion in outfitting, the vessel is transported again by the hydraulic transfer system to the launchway. The launchway slopes, and as the vessel moves across, it is transferred from the building platens to wedges. Even though the launchway does slope, the ves- sel is maintained in a level attitude.

The building platens are available again for construction of another vessel. Final internal work and out- fitting can be accomplished on the launchway.

When launch day arrives, a trig- gering mechanism releases the vessel and it slides into the launch bay. The bay is a slip which opens onto the ship channel. Water depth in this area varies from 25 to 60 feet, with the latter depth used for incline testing of the vessels. The slip is 500 feet wide and 1,700 feet long.

Often the outfitting (and even fabrication) of the big mobile off- shore rigs that Marathon builds will be done in the slip and a large area is provided for this. To handle the heavy lift jobs in the slip area, the yard utilizes two barge cranes, each with a rated capacity of 150 tons. Two push tugs at the yard move the cranes about. Marathon built both cranes and the tugs at another of its yards in Vicksburg,

Miss. Marathon's Vicksburg plant and another in Longview, Texas, serve as support facilities for the

Brownsville yard. This is in addi- tion to product lines produced and marketed from the two plants. Ma- rine deck cranes are manufactured at Vicksburg for installation on rigs in Brownsville. The company's steel mill in Longview produces many of the special alloys that go into Brownsville rigs. The Long- view Division also supplies electric motors and generators for vessels at Brownsville.

In other areas of the Brownsville facility, Marathon has a completely equipped pipe shop and electrical and plumbing shops. A machine shop is on the drawing boards.

Often the customer will supply much of the equipment to be incor- porated into an offshore rig or oth- er vessel. Marathon's yard has out- side storage areas and a warehouse for customer use.

When a mobile offshore rig or other vessel leaves the yard, it en- ters the deepwater channel at the

Port of Brownsville, and from there it's just a few miles to the

Gulf of Mexico. An important con-

Discussions On LNGs

Highlight ASNE Meeting

At a recent dinner meeting of about 90 members and guests, the

Tidewater Chapter of The Ameri- can Society of Naval Engineers presented an informative program on the design, construction and op- eration of large modern LNG tank- ers.

Michael Goudouin of Marine

Technigaz, Inc., Boston, Mass., was the guest speaker. Mr. Goudouin— a rare combination of designer, en- gineer and cost accountant—dis- cussed, with the aid of excellent motion pictures and slides, the two leading types of LNG carriers.

The spherical tank type is more adaptable to the smaller ships where the weight is proportionate to capacity, as is cost.

The very large ships will use the membrane construction. The primary barrier liner consisting of waffled stainless steel sheets, and the secondary barrier consisting of modular elements are separated by a balsa wood and sugar maple ply- wood sandwich. It is anticipated that the LNG tankers to be built by Newport News Shipbuilding &

Dry Dock Co. will use the mem- brane system. The size of these vessels makes automation of weld- ing and material handling manda- tory. sideration for Marathon is that there could be no overhead obstruc- tions on the ship channel. The big offshore rigs are tall and overhead obstructions would have prevented use of the channel.

Marathon's Gulf Marine Division is now building vessels on a pro- duction basis. The yard has seven units under construction at the present. The company faced and overcame numerous matters con- cerned with building a new yard and commencing production. One reason for the firm's decision to locate in Brownsville was the area's low average annual rainfall—just 27^2 inches. In 1972, however, the rainfall was much above the annual average.

Another point is that Browns- ville has relatively little heavy in- dustry. Marathon learned that though there were few skilled workers available, there was a large labor pool that (and testing showed this) could be trained. The com- pany first began working with Tex- as Southmost College on a voca- tional training program for weld- ers. Training facilities were later moved to the shipyard and classes are continuing. Trainees attend classroom lectures on such diverse subjects as blueprint reading and job safety. Early welding skills are developed in a laboratory situation.

Training continues on the job.

Trainees must meet ABS standards for full employment but they are paid from the time training begins.

A total of 610 employees have com- pleted the program and have been certified with another 100 in train- ing. The yard's total work force now stands at 1,800 and is expected to be 2,500 by year end.

All of the research and develop- ment of this system was financed by Technigaz, a subsidiary of Gaz- ocean.

At the business meeting preced- ing the program, the officers for calendar 1973 were installed as fol- lows : chairman, Capt. W.E. Mc-

Garrah, USN, Fleet Maintenance

Officer, COMPHIBLANT; vice chairman, Comdr. J.A. Siebel, US-

CGR, marine consultant; council- ors, Rear Adm. D.H. Clark, USN (ret.), Rear Adm. E.H. Thiele,

USCG (ret.), Rear Adm. Jamie

Adair, USN (ret.), Capt. R.F.

Roche, USN, Assistant Fleet Main- tenance Officer, CINCLANT, and

J. Eaton, Chief, Facilities Branch,

Atlantic Marine Center (NOAA) ; secretary, R.S. Gray, Chief Sur- veyor, SUPSHIP FIVE, Norfolk

Naval Shipyard; treasurer, Lt.

Comdr. E.S. McGinley, USN, Na- val Safety Center.

Committee chairmen: program,

Comdr. J.F. Yurso, USN, Fleet

Maintenance Division, CINCL-

ANT; publicity, J.R. Miller, J J.

Henry Co., Inc.; membership,

Comdr. M.R. Gluse, USN, Main- tenance Division, COMOERVL-

ANT, and hospitality, J.T. Hick- man, nuclear engineer, Norfolk Na- val Shipyard.

The meeting was held at the

Fort Monroe Officers' Club, Hamp- ton, Va.

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Vessel Closures 8 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News