Ingalls Shipbuilding Finishes Cutter Ship, the Hamilton

Industrial business is one of the biggest money-makers in Jackson County, and Monday, Ingalls Shipbuilding finished another big project. One hundred and sixteen Coast Guard men and women are unpacking their bags on the Hamilton as the hundreds of shipbuilders who worked on the ship say goodbye.

Program Manager, Derek Murphy, watched the ship transform from nothing but steel plates to a 418 foot ship. He says this new cutter is the workmanship of a team with a lot of shipbuilding experience. Murphy says, "When you get these ships into serial production, you have the lessons learned from every shipbuilder working their assigned space. So that lessons learned rolls from hull-to-hull-to-hull and you can see that in the cost, numbers that have just significantly dropped on this class of ship."

Building the best ships at an affordable price has been a priority for Ingalls, but can also be a challenge. With the Department of Defense looking to streamline budgets, each new ship must be more efficient than the last. Captain Douglas Fears, Captain of the Hamilton, says, "We can go just about anywhere by ourselves, or we could go as part of a Navy strike group, but as defense budgets are being challenged, the Navy is trying to build ships as well, we can probably fit some lower end naval capabilities."

It’s been 25 years since a major cutter was based out of the Atlantic, and Capt. Fears says the Hamilton will play a crucial role in our national security. Fears also says, "You can get white Coast Guard cutters into places that you can’t get grey Navy ships, and the U.S. has interests around the globe and the Coast Guard has unique authority and capabilities to deliver our national security needs."

The Hamilton will soon be leaving from Ingalls to head to its home port in Charleston, South Carolina. From there, it will go on several drug task force missions in the Caribbean.

Until then, Coast Guard members will be training for the ship’s first mission. The Hamilton sets sail November 1st for Charleston.