Machinery List News

Building a Quiet Vessel without a Navy Budget

The term "Quiet Vessel" evokes images of stealthy nuclear submarines such as the Seawolf or the new Virginia Class. You may even think of the super-secret Sea Shadow, a radar evading surface vessel designed and built by the makers of the stealth fighter and stealth bomber, the Lockheed "Skunk-Works". However, you would probably not relate the term, "Quiet Vessel", to a new pair of Station Pilot-Boats built for the San Francisco Bar Pilots, a Voith-Schiedner Tractor Tug or a new Ferry for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Whereas the Seawolf and Sea Shadow were designed to be quiet underwater, the Pilotboat, tugboat and ferry were simply designed to be quiet for their occupants.