Feature: Keeping the Port in Portland
We rolled into town on the last train north, arriving Portland, Maine at 2:00 a.m. Half an hour later we were at the dock, hauling our kit - and when Marine News travels light, we're like Hannibal crossing the Alps - over silent tugs resting abreast: Captain Bill, Justine McAllister, Stamford. On the phone a few days before, Capt. Brian Fournier had said something about leaving a light in Stamford's forward port cabin, and there, finally, it shone. But something brighter had caught our eye, and could we believe it? Last time we saw something like it, it was in Aberdeen, Scotland. Now, from Stamford's starboard rail, it loomed and glistened four hundred feet away - rising nearly as high - a pair of deep-sea drilling platforms, afloat waters barely up to their ankles.
Feature: Cianbro Earns Maritime Stripes
When Cianbro Corporation approached Petrodrill, an international rig-owning company with Brazilian and American shareholders, about completing two partially-built oil rigs in 2002, some thought Cianbro President and CEO Peter Vigue was out of his mind. "What they didn't understand is that Cianbro has a secret:our people," said Vigue. "Our people were ready, willing, and able to take on this challenge. The Maine firm had no experience or track record in oil rig construction when Vigue sought out the Petrodrill project. One of the East Coast's largest construction companies, Cianbro was best known for large civil and heavy industrial projects.
