Chafee christening opens new era for Bath facility

BATH – The christening of the USS Chafee marked a milestone for Bath Iron Works as the first warship to be built at the shipyard’s $240 million land-level transfer facility.

The new facility, which includes a new dry dock, cranes and other equipment, allows a warship to be built on a level surface rather than on inclined ways as Bath shipbuilders had done for more than a century.

Gone is the image etched in many people’s minds of massive ships sliding into the water to the cheering of crowds.

There were cheering spectators Monday, but the Chafee already was in the water, having been transferred to a dry dock a week earlier and floating free without the drama of past launches.

Because it was built more efficiently, the Chafee was 88 percent complete when it was christened Monday.

By comparison, the Mason was 66 percent complete when it was launched the old-fashioned way in June.

The new way of building a warship on a flat surface is expected to shave 12 weeks off the production schedule and make the shipyard more competitive in an era of dwindling defense dollars.

“We’re building each one better than the last,” said Allan Cameron, BIW president.

The Bath shipyard, which began as a foundry in 1826, had clung to its old-fashioned ways long after other yards modernized.

Two years after being purchased by General Dynamics, one of the nation’s biggest defense contractors, the shipyard launched its own modernization in 1997. The new facility was dedicated in May 2001.