Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1993)

processing facilities that exist here.

The marine repair facility of Mas- ter Marine, with its 350- and 370- ton floating drydocks, has remained busy over the past two years, but

Mr. Dungan admits the 12-foot channel precludes bidding on repair jobs of deeper draft vessels, such as larger oceangoing tugs. A major share of Master Marine's revenue over the past two years came from government contracts, one being the overhaul of the USS Suitland, YDT- 15, a converted mine sweeper. The overhauled vessel is now being used by the Naval Diving and Salvage

Training Center in Panama City,

Fla. The yard also overhauled a 160- foot buoy tender for the USCG. A project of interest was the conver- sion of a car ferry to a river bus for passengers now in use between

Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia.

The next as a port of call was

Landry Boat Works, Inc. The initial picture of the yard was one that dramatically illustrated small boat evolution. On the first railway was an approximately 30-year-old wooden shrimp boat under repair.

The next was a rather new steel shrimp boat and the third railway contained the ribs of a wooden shrimp boat on which construction had ceased several months ago. Joe

Landry, company president, said that he sees no present demand for new wooden vessels, but steel and wooden boat repairs have kept the yard busy. Even though wood boa

Landry's building specialty for ma years, are much cheaper than st( vessels, the cost of insuring the vessels far outweighs the savin derived from their constructic

Scarcity, and the price of good til ber, are also serious disadvantage

Another recently-opened yard co structing boats is LaForce Shipyar

Inc., owned and operated by Lesl: and Raymond LaForce. Their fir two steel trawlers are under coi struction for Captain Tom's Seafooi

Inc., of Palacios, Texas. The tw vessels under contruction are indies tive of some remaining domestic fis boat markets.

Randall's Boat Repair, owned an operated by Randall Fowler, i another of the few yards in the Bayoi today where wooden boat repair are accomplished. Although dwin dling, a fair number of wooden boati still exist.

Andre P. Dubroc of Master Boai

Builders, Inc., said that in 1992 his yard built a number of boats for

Texas buyers, but most of its present construction is to satisfy foreign de- mands. Not being situated on the

Bayou to be deepened, he feels this project will benefit his yard indi- rectly, and that all benefits the com- munity receives will trickle down in one way or another.

LaForce Shipyard, Inc., like most others, experienced a demand from overseas and Canadian markets.

Longliners have been sent to the

Pacific area and stern trawlers to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of

Canada.

J. L. Howard, president of Ocean

Marine, Inc., feels that, until the political future of the country as a whole becomes more predictable, many foreign markets will delay or- ders. He cites his own case of not having built vessels within the last two years for markets in which he once prevailed.

When asked his opinion of the local channel deepening, Mr.

Howard said he is reserving final judgment until he determines the degree to which it will encroach upon his existing railways, and the yet to be determined means by which the

City of Bayou La Batre will pay fu- ture installments on its $2 million portion of the project. "It's simply a matter of making certain you can pay for something before you buy it," he says, and fur- ther adds that he opposes an em- ployee tax on workers, as has been suggested. Today, he is building 10 special-purpose shrimp trawlers to be used for on-board processing and fast-freezing of shrimp. Two of these vessels are presently under construc- tion.

Another noteworthy development taking place in this area which, in the future, will favorably impact the

U.S. fishing industry, is being car- ried out by Retired Colonel Donald

M. Frierson in cooperation with

Auburn University Marine Exten- sion Research Center. The project is a mariculture (saltwater) study be- ing done using oysters, shrimp and crabs. This research is expected to lead to a more extensive and produc- tive harvest of the marine life under

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