Page 5: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 15, 1973)

General Dynamics Electric Boat Launches

Quiet One' And Lays Keel For Attack Sub

Santa Fe Drilling Company

Promotes Orr And Barnhill

The Navy's "quiet" submarine was launched and construction was started 011 a high-speed attack submarine at the General Dynamics'

Electric Boat Division, Groton, Conn. During the ceremonies, top Washington officials called for strong and realistic deterrents as necessary in an era of negotiations for peace.

Melvin R. Laird, Counselor to the President for Domestic Affairs, and keynote speaker at the launching on August 4 of the Glenard P.

Lipscomb, said : "Under the President's lead- ership, we have moved from confrontation to negotiation. We have succeeded because of our determination to remain strong. We have no alternative, if we are to safeguard our nation, but to press forward with both the programs to maintain that realistic deterrent and the negotiations necessary to permit that progress. f 8

Mrs. Virginia Lipscomb of Washington, D.C., widow of the late California Congressman Glsnard P. Lipscomb, christens "quiet" submarine that bears his name, during ceremonies

August 4 at General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division,

Groton, Conn. Other dignitaries include, from left: Vice

Adm. H.G. Rickover, Director, Navy Nuclear Propulsion

Program; David S. Lewis, chairman of the board, General

Dynamics; Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, Chief of Naval Material-

Secretary of the Navy John W. Warner, and Meivin R.

Lriird, Counselor to the President for Domestic Affairs. "We pray," Mr. Laird continued, "for the time when the capable and resolute profession- al men and women who have made this launch- ing possible, from the skilled shipyard worker to the highest level planner, can participate in producing instruments of trade and com- merce."

Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson, on the previous day at keel-laying ceremonies for the USS Groton, said: "It is vital that we continue to maintain our military strength in order that we may pursue the opportunities of the era of negotiations. It is important that we perceive the structure of world peace as a structure resting on psychological attitudes.

It is a structure only as stable as the confidence people have that there will not be permitted to occur the exploitation of the weak by the strong or the assertion of unilateral claims by one country against another."

Both ceremonies took place at General Dy- namics' Electric Boat Division which Mr.

Richardson said had "built and delivered a total of 41 of the 101 nuclear submarines in the fleet, including the world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus."

His wife, Anne Hazard Richardson, welded her initials in the 106-ton keel plate as it was lowered into position on the building ways.

General Dynamics has a contract for seven of the SSN 688 Los Angeles class submarines to be built for the LPS. Navy.

Mr. Richardson quipped that he should be doing the welding since he had served an ap- prenticeship as a welder at the Ouincy ship- yard, now owned by General Dynamics.

The Lipscomb is a turbine electric-drive submarine and many advanced techniques for submarine silencing have been incorporated in li-er design. The "quiet" sub was christened by Mrs. Virginia Lipscomb of Washington,

D.C., widow of the nine-term Congressman from California.

Other participants in the two ceremonies included Secretary of the Navy John W.

Warner; Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, Chief of Naval

Material; Vice Adm. H.G. Rickover, Director.

Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program; Rear

Adm. Robert C. Gooding, Commander, Naval

Ship Systems Command; David S. Lewis, chairman of the board of General Dynamics, and Joseph D. Pierce, general manager, Elec- tric Boat Division and vice president of Gen- eral Dynamics.

Mrs. Anne Hazard Richardson, wife of the Attorney Gen- eral of the United States, brushes slag from steel plate after welding her initials "A.H.R." on the keel of the USS

Groton. Welder Diijon Speedwell assisted Mrs. Richardson.

Ceremony, honoring the city and town where more than 150 IMavy submarines have been designed and built, was held on August 3 and witnessed by Secretary of the Navy

John W. Warner and Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson (r).

Dudley Himoff Announces

Maritime Group Realignment

Through its chairman Dudley T. Himoff, the

Maritime Group Inc., shipowners and opera- tors, has announced a realignment of the com- pany's staff with four appointments.

Allen F. Elia was named president and chief executive officer of Maritime Container

Lines, which maintains regular container serv- ice in the North Atlantic. He will be head- quartered in New York.

Klaus W.H. Beckman was appointed ex- ecutive vice president of Himoff Maritime En- terprises Ltd., a tramp ship operation, and vice president of Navabel International Ltd., which operates Navibel Lines into the Great Lakes.

In addition, John R. Massey was named general manager-administration for the group including Navibel Lines and Maritime Con- tainer Lines, while Armand de Vlaminck has been appointed general manager of sales and operations for the same group of companies.

He will have headquarters in Antwerp, Bel- gium.

Charles K. Orr Charles L. Barnhill

Charles K. Orr, manager of Santa Fe Drill- ing Company's North Sea drilling operations since 1970, has been transferred to London,

England, and promoted to regional manager of business development for Santa Fe Inter- national Corporation.

He is responsible for coordinating business development efforts for the company's drilling, construction and engineering divisions throughout Europe and Africa.

A petroleum engineering graduate of Texas

A & M University, Mr. Orr has been chairman of the North Sea chapter of the International

Association of Drilling Contractors since its establishment early this year. This is the first

IADC chapter organized outside the United

States.

Succeeding Mr. Orr as North Sea zone mana- ger in Great Yarmouth is Charles L. Barn- hill, operations manager there since June 1972.

Mr. Barnhill joined Santa Fe in" 1971 and served as operations manager in western Ven- ezuela before transferring to England in 1972.

In his new position, he has jurisdiction over three Santa Fe rigs currently in the zone. He will also have responsibility for two new semi- submersible rigs to be operated in the North

Sea by Sante Fe-Waage Drilling Co., a U.S.-

Norwegian joint venture.

PFEL And U.S. Lines Ask

MarAd Aid To Convert Six

Breakbulk Ships To Tankers

Pacific Far East Line Inc. has joined Unit- ed States Lines in planning to convert rela- tively new breakbulk vessels to tankers.

The two ship conversion of surplus Mariner class freighters to tankships of 80,000-90,000- dwt is estimated by PFEL to Sst from $21 million to $22 million each. Pacific Far East

Line has applied to the Maritime Adminis- tration for both construction and operating subsidies in connection with the two conver- sions which were being discussed with Todd

Shipyards, San Francisco.

Under the impact of containerization, em- ployment for breakbulk ships, except for mili- tary cargoes, has diminished sharply. United

States Lines wants subsidy to convert four of its C-3s to tankers, of approximately the same size, as a means of getting more profit- able employment for the vessels.

The conversion cost for its four vessels is estimated by United States Lines to be about $87.6 million of which up to 39 percent would be paid for in subsidy. United States Lines has also applied for operating subsidy.

PFEL estimates it will take 18 months to two years to complete the conversions and anticipates concluding a letter of agreement with Todd shortly covering this work.

PFEL also said it expects to have two suit- able Mariners for such conversion in layup and it is the company's intent to develop this project in the shortest possible time. is general, dynamics

Electric Boat niulslon ...._

September 15, 1973 7