Coast Guard Orders Keep Marinette Marine Busy

The cutter Mackinaw is one of 31 vessels Marinette Marine Corp. has produced for the U.S. Coast Guard. The company is also building 180 high-speed interdiction boats for the Coast Guard over the next decade, said Bob Herre, president of the Manitowoc Marine Group.

The first six of the 45-ft. response boats are expected to be delivered late this year and in early 2008. Defense contacts make up about half of the work done by The Manitowoc Co.'s marine group, said Steve Khail, director of investor relations and corporate communications for The Manitowoc Co. Inc. Manitowoc owns both Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette and Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. Bay Shipbuilding focuses on much of the commercial work done by the company.

In recent years Marinette Marine Corp. produced the 31 cutters and is currently working on the lead ship in a new class of Navy vessels known as the Littoral Combat Ship. They have also built Staten Island ferries and a pair of ocean-going tugs, one of which has been delivered and another that will be delivered late this year.

The Mackinaw project got under way back in 2001 when the contract was awarded to Marinette Marine, the 31st ship to be built by the company, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Mackinaw was commissioned last summer, replacing the former cutter Mackinaw that was built in 1944. The USCGC Mackinaw clears passageways on Green Bay from Marinette to Sturgeon Bay. The vessel executed various ice trials to test the limits of the boat. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette