Shipyard head touring Maine Bath Iron Works president visits courthouses to learn state history

MACHIAS – John “Dugan” Shipway, president of Bath Iron Works, has made an impact at the shipyard in Bath since his first day at the Bath facility in April 2003. He makes a practice of greeting his 6,700 workers individually, asking what they do and how far they drive to work.

He wants to gain their confidence as he guides them toward what he calls a “dramatically uncertain future.”

Now Shipway and his wife, Lyn, newcomers to Maine after his 35-year career in the U.S. Navy, are making their way through the state. They are visiting all 16 counties and their courthouses to learn more about Maine’s history.

The Shipways made it to Washington County earlier this week. They came as guests of Wayne Peters, a retired U.S. Navy captain living in Roque Bluffs and a member of the Machias Rotary Club.

A retired U.S. Navy admiral who worked with Peters in their previous careers, Shipway spoke at both the Rotary Club meeting Tuesday and the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce public breakfast gathering Wednesday.

It was the second Rotary group in Maine he has met with, in addition to the club in Bath. He is eager to tell Bath Iron Works’ 120-year story and says, “We have many more ships on the horizon.”

Although employment levels have dropped from a peak of 12,000 in 1990, BIW’s current 6,700 workers make it the state’s second-largest private employer after grocery chain Hannaford, Shipway said.

Shipway says his primary goal as president is “to leave the shipyard in a better position in the future than when I got here.”

In April alone, BIW launched the warship USS Nitze. It was the third destroyer completed in Bath since General Dynamics, BIW’s owner since 1995, invested $240 million in a land-level transfer facility designed to make the shipbuilder faster and more efficient.

But he foresees a challenge as the Department of Defense transitions to the next generation of destroyers, DD(X), the successor to the DDG series.

“We must get more efficient in 2004,” Shipway told the Machias groups. “It takes more hours to build a DDG in Maine than it does in Mississippi,” the home of BIW’s chief rival, Ingalls Shipbuilding.

Shipway is worried about a likely gap in the workload at Bath, possibly as long as 18 months, between the time the DDG program ends and DD(X) production starts.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, D-Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, has delivered a commitment from defense officials that some of the work on the first new DD(X) destroyer would be done at BIW.

As much as Shipway plans for the company’s future in five or 10 years, he also focuses on daily work atmosphere at the shipyard.

He is shaping a work force that takes pride in what it does, has a safe environment and receives fair compensation and benefits, he said.

“We treat everyone with dignity,” he said. “We act with dignity and good old Maine common sense.”