Matsonia job may bring more ship work
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Honolulu's shipyard industry hopes that dry-dock repairs to the cargo carrier Matsonia at Pearl Harbor will lead to more big ship work — and jobs — under the public-private venture.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The 760-foot Matsonia is the largest ship to be dry-docked at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard since the aircraft carriers Yorktown in World War II, and later, the Philippine Sea, officials said.
A worker at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is dwarfed by the SS Matsonia, a 760-foot container ship in dry dock under a public-private partnership.
The Matson flagship vessel, which experienced a shaft failure 700 miles off O'ahu, was brought June 23 to the 1,100-foot-long dry dock — the largest of four — for emergency repairs.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, yesterday said the project demonstrates that Hawai'i's shipyards, working with the Navy, "can succeed with any routine or emergency ship repair in the Pacific."
"This lets us compete against all the big guys on the Mainland, and all the ideas that perhaps Hawai'i would have to be bypassed," Abercrombie said. "No longer. This is terrific."
Abercrombie is working on a pilot program to dry-dock for repairs at Pearl Harbor one of 11 maritime pre-position ships in the Pacific that act as forward-based stocks of U.S. military equipment, said Bill Clifford, president and CEO of Pacific Shipyards International.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The ships bypass Hawai'i, pass through the Panama Canal, offload equipment in Florida and head up the East Coast for repairs that keep them out of theater for four months — twice as long as they would be in dry dock in Hawai'i, Clifford said.
Congressman Neil Abercrombie, at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, inspected repairs to the SS Matsonia, rear. The job was done under a public-private sector partnership. At left is Pacific Shipyards International CEO Bill Clifford.
"Give us one of those ships that are, say, parked in Guam or somewhere, and instead of passing Hawai'i, come in here," he said. "We'll take the rolling stock off. We have a fuel farm. We have an ammunition depot in Lualualei. So we're using this (the Matsonia repair) as a milestone to say, 'See, we can do the (work).' "
A cruise ship has been docked only twice for repairs in the Navy yard in the past couple of years, Clifford said.
The repair work to the Matsonia is expected to take 17 days. None of the other three Navy shipyards nationwide is accepting commercial work.
"A lot of people say, 'Oh, you can never get to use that (Navy) dry dock.' Well, here's living proof that we can get to use it," Clifford said. "We happen to have a lucrative (public)-private partnership, and they are letting us put vessels in here. We're the only (Navy shipyard) getting it done."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
