Contact: Jay Tebeau FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(202) 482-6090 2/17/95
The nation's lead ocean research agency will celebrate the start of construction of its first research ship to be built in nearly 15 years with a ceremonial kick-off next week in Mississippi.
Halter Marine Inc. of Gulfport, Miss., will hold a keel- laying ceremony at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, to mark the beginning of construction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's vessel RESEARCHER. The ceremony will take place at the Halter Marine shipyard at Moss Point, Miss.
The company is constructing the world-class research vessel to support several of the Commerce Department agency's critical scientific missions. The 274-foot RESEARCHER is the first ship constructed for NOAA since 1980.
"Our current fleet of 18 active ships is on average, 30 years old and was built in the 1960s," said Diana H. Josephson, Commerce's deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "This event represents a major step in our efforts to modernize our fleet."
Josephson and Rear Admiral Sigmund Petersen, director of the Office of NOAA Corps Operations, will attend the ceremony.
Traditionally, the first milestone in a ship's history is the laying of the keel. Josephson will speak for NOAA and, with help from one of the shipyard's welders, she and Rear Admiral Petersen will strike welding arcs on a steel plate. That plate will be incorporated into the ship during construction.
The ship will aid the agency's scientists in obtaining oceanographic and atmospheric data essential in understanding climate variability.
The original contract was awarded competitively to Halter Marine Inc. by the Naval Sea Systems Command to build one ship for the Navy with options to build two additional ships. The first and second ships built under the contract will be operated by Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Through an agreement with the Navy, NOAA exercised the option in February 1994 to build a ship for the NOAA fleet.
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NOTE TO EDITORS: The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday,
Feb. 21 at:
Halter Marine Shipyard
5801 Elder Ferry Road
Moss Point, Mississippi