China’s Navy Will Overtake U.S. Fleet by 2015; Where are Midwest Shipyards?
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Aerial photo of Defoe yard in early 1960s shows four guided missile destroyers under construction for the Australian Navy.
The destroyer museum ship USS Edson is scheduled to be towed to Bay City next summer and to be on display near the Independence Bridge.
When the Defoe Shipbuilding Company closed in Bay City in 1977, conventional wisdom was that shipbuilding here was not viable because the bridges were too narrow.
I hear that same argument today. Apparently, nobody has bothered to check the facts.
However, today the largest ships on the Great Lakes, lakers up to 1,000 feet long, call here often. If shipbuilding is not viable here because of the width of the bridges, how do these ships get here? In fact, they get all the way to Saginaw with huge cargoes.
The destroyer museum ship USS Edson is scheduled to be towed to Bay City next summer and to be on display near the Independence Bridge. To get up river it will have to go through one of the narrowest railroad bridges on the river. Obviously, destroyer class ships could be built here once again, as they were in the 1950s and 1960s.
It has always been puzzling to me why Defoe just closed, did not sell out or even transfer its business to another yard. I always gotthe story: "Everything has moved off shore." In other words, foreign yards were getting all the shipbuilding contracts.
If that was true 30 years ago, it is not true today. There apparently is plenty of business to keep two yards in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, going strong.
Of the nation's 243 shipyards, only 12 are located in the Midwest. And only a handful are builders of large ships. If a new shipyard in Bay City could be developed, it may have a good chance of success because of the lack of competition on the Great Lakes. It would seem that economic developers would be on top of developments in this field, what with the contraction of the auto industry.
GlobalSecurity.org has this to say about Defoe and the port of Bay City: "Defoe Shipbuilding Co. of Bay City, Michigan built a variety of smaller surface combatants and auxiliary ships for the US Navy. Founded in 1905, the Defoe Shipbuilding Co. built Charles F. Adams class guided missile destroyers for the US and the Royal Australian Navies, and FF-1037 Bronstein-class frigates. During World War II Defoe built Destroyer Escorts, and High Speed Transports [APD] of similar design once it became evident there were more Destroyer Escorts coming to completion than were needed for the lessened antisubmarine effort.
"Defoe constructed hundreds of steel ships for military and commercial use, including 650-foot Great Lakes ore carriers, and was also active in commercial ship conversion. The Herbert C Jackson was the heaviest vessel ever side-launched when it slid into the waters at River Rouge, Michigan in 1959. The Jackson was launched as a straight deck bulk freighter but was converted to a self-unloader in 1975 at Defoe Shipbuilding. Bay City is still one of the top ranked ports on the Great Lakes and handles more waterborne tonnage than at any of the 31 other Michigan port cities, excluding Detroit."
Bay Shipbuilding of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, hired 600 new employees in in one recent years. Just last year it had six new vessels under construction. Manitowoc Marine Group, of which Bay Shipbuilding is a member, recently has constructed five ships: a 378-foot long Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)for anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and mine warfare missions; the new Great Lakes Icebreaker Mackinaw, 240 feet long, based in Cheboygan, Michigan; and three new Staten Island ferries, each 310 feet long and each capable of transporting 4,400 passengers and 30 vehicles.
Is shipbuilding an area of manufacturing that could be revived? Wisconsin thinks so, and has accomplished it.
There is another issue: national security!
The American Shipbuilding Association lays out a frightening scenario: "Today the U.S. fleet numbers 280 ships. Though our naval fleet is the most technologically advanced power on the seas, the decreasing number of ships is placing the Navy in a vise… one that tightens as the number of ships steadily falls and deployments increase."
Reports fromWashington are that the Navy wants to increase its construction budget from $10 billion a year to $13 billion. It proposes to build a fleet of 55 LCS ships, considered inexpensive at less than $300 million each. However, only seven new DD(X) destroyers would be added, at a cost of $2-3 billion each.
Oldtimers in Bay City recall that Defoe made significant contributions to the U.S. Navy in both World War I and II. The Bay City yard built prototypes of destroyers escorts ordered by President Roosevelt in 1938. Many other yards built the feisty submarine fighters designed by Defoe, along with the local yard, and they are credited with turning the tide against the German U-Boats in 1942 and 1943.
Where would the nation have been in World War II without Defoe?
The ASA states: "While some may argue that the 'new' enemies of today are not ones that can be challenged by the naval fleets of the 'past', a very ominous potential threat is building on the horizon.
"Chinahas been officially modernizing its military for two-and-a-half decades. By the year 2010, China's submarine force will be nearly double the size of the U.S. submarine fleet. The entire Chinese naval fleet is projected to surpass the size of the U.S. fleet by 2015. In short, the Chinese military is specifically being configured to rival America's Sea Power.
"How will the U.S. respond? Go boldly into the future, secure in the knowledge that this country is prepared to meet the challenges ahead? Or allow the current trend to continue, hoping that we can 'make do' with a diminishing number of resources against a soon to be superior naval power?"
It may be that there is a greater threat than world terrorism: China, perhaps? Theshipbuilders association poses a pertinent question about our security that can and should be addressed by political and business leaders before it is too late. And towns like Bay City that have a history of shipbuilding and record of achievement should be in the forefront of this discussion.###
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