Suit filed over moving of dry dock

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Honolulu company that invested $4.5 million to build a dry dock for Hawai'i ship repairs filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against two companies it says schemed fraudulently to bring a surplus Navy dry dock here even if it was to be used only in Alaska.

Tanadgusix Corp., or TDX, based in Anchorage, Alaska, and Hawai'i-based Marisco Ltd. improperly began dry dock and ship repairs on the Coast Guard cutter Jarvis on Jan. 18 at Barbers Point Harbor, according to the suit by Pacific Shipyards International LLC.

"As a result of the fraudulent scheme of Marisco and TDX," the suit states, Pacific Shipyards International "will ultimately lose the value of its investment of $4.5 million therein."

A TDX marine manager said he had not seen the suit and could not comment. Marisco officials could not be reached.

The surplus dry dock known as Competent AFDM-6 was never supposed to operate in Hawai'i, according to the suit.

The U.S. government transferred the dry dock to TDX in March after the company said it wanted to diversify the economy of St. Paul Island in Alaska, which was reeling from the collapse of crab stocks, according to the suit.

TDX says it is a Native Alaskan corporation representing the indigenous people of St. Paul Island, according to the suit. But "TDX never intended to operate the AFDM-6 at or near St. Paul Island," the suit says.

The island's inclement weather would make ship repair impractical for much of the year; it lacks appropriate facilities to berth and operate a dry dock as large as the Competent AFDM-6; and is too isolated for business opportunities around the dry dock, the suit says.

TDX told the U.S. General Services Administration it would take six to eight months to rehabilitate the AFDM-6 in Hawai'i through its partner, Marisco.

Sometime around April, according to the suit, TDX moved the dry dock to Marisco's Barbers Point Harbor "ostensibly for the purpose of making repairs to the dry dock to render it safe for transportation (to Alaska).

"In reality, Marisco immediately began to make repairs and improvements to the dry dock for the purpose of permanently mooring and placing it into operation at Marisco's facilities."