An unhurried, meticulous,
character-rich portrait of the Bath Iron Works, where the navy's destroyers are
built, is the subject of Maine writer Michael Sanders. The massive complex of
ways, cranes, and hangars along Maine's Kennebec River, the Bath Iron Works, has
been fashioning grand and enormous ships for over a century. Its more than just
an economic mainstay of the state, as Sanders's history and tour of the works
makes plain: its an institution that has as much to do with the art and pride of
shipbuilding as it does with employing 5,000 workers: pipe fitters, marine
architects, braziers, draftsmen, tin-knockers, riggers, anglesmiths,
straighteners, and blasters. These days the works feels fortunate to be one of
only six remaining active naval shipyards in the US commercial ships are built
at subsidized yards in Korea, Finland, Russia, and Japan and as the navy
downsizes, its a precarious existence. Sanders follows the building of the
destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75), from first torch cut to
commissioning. A massive enterprise where welders become performance artists,
smithies pound red-hot steel in cavernous penumbral furnace buildings like
something out of Norse mythology. Crane operators nurse into position steel
slabs weighing hundreds of tons, sometimes by increments of an inch and not by
computer control, but by the delicate touch of experienced hands on levers. And
as this new ship is a fighting vessel, there is included a short course on
modern warfare at sea, in which naval engagements are carried out at great, and
what feel like anesthetizing, distances. Sanders chooses his words caringly,
working with an engineer's precision, a formal elegance, whereas the comments he
records from the shipbuilders are more casual and a relief. The author depicts
the works as part of a remarkable and increasingly rare industry that fuses
technological innovation with proud craftsmanship and a work ethic that makes a
ship-fitter's affectionate patting of a 9,000-ton hull a very natural gesture.
New
softbound book, with 354 pages, 29 black and white photographs, 10 diagrams and an index.
New Book --- $11.88
"'An
admirable job of conveying the life history of a destroyer... [Sanders] is a
superb expository writer" New York Time book review.
"Hard
hats off to Michael Sanders for a magnificent book! He has presented a
thoroughly researched and extremely well written account of life inside Bath
Iron Works. In the space of only 236 pages, he manages to portray just how
difficult and dangerous an occupation shipbuilding is. (I know; I currently
work at Bath Iron Works and spent several months on the USS Donald Cook.)
I found the book to contain just the right combination of the basics of ship
design and construction, and a wonderful human interest story. I highly
recommend this book to everyone!" Mike Powers
"Every
summer, thousands of people drive through Bath on their way to coastal
Maine. If they are like this reviewer, many of them look at the Bath Iron
Works as they pass by and wonder how those worthy ships get built. Well,
wonder no longer. The Yard tells the story, and tells it very well."
Dana J. Pratt
The YARD Building A
Destroyer At The Bath Iron Works
by Michael S. Sanders
New Softbound edition
354 pages, 29 black and white photographs,
10 diagrams.
New $11.88
ISBN # 0-06-092963-4
