Week 3

Fun Fact: Ships are huge (and neat); Shipyards are even larger...very easy to get lost. 

My third week in the yard started with me getting a general tour of the yard.  There are three ships (sort of) being constructed at this given point.  I can’t tell you what they are (I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you) but they're neat, trust me.  The number of ships in construction right now is difficult to explain... it's really seven ships because they're somewhere in between first cut and keel laying.

Now, the first thing to say about the yard is that it's massive.  I've been in local repair yards previously, but they were nothing in comparison to this.  I was shown through one of the boats that first two days and got to talk with some of the apprentices.  It was not the first military ship I had been on; however, its current agenda is to make history rather than display it. The first ship I went on was already in the water rather than in segments all over the yard. (Non-boat people: ships are now built in small segments and then those are put together like Legos instead of all at once)

Assembling Example 

The other ones I was able to see were in various stages of getting ready for the water.  There was another ship already in the water as well, but that was already turned over to the Navy and in the process of sea trials so I didn’t have the security clearance to get on that one.

Later that week, I was able to attend a joiners class where I found that I can somehow manage to make things out of metal.  I. E. Sheet metal working.  Turned out not to be easy, although it was very fun to say the least.  On Friday, though, I was able to go around the yard and was shown a few of the cranes in the yard.  (Read: climb up a million stairs to see a few of the cranes and then get to operate the steel yard crane for a little bit)

 As a parting thought: it IS possible to conquer fear.  Before climbing said millions of stairs, I was mildly afraid of heights.