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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Dock Master

My husband has a very interesting profession, he is a Naval Architect/Marine Engineer. One of his main duties is figuring out how to get very large ships into the water once they are ready to float. The term for this person is either Launch Master or Dock Master, they both mean the same thing, and my husband has held both titles during his more than thirty year career.

Here is a link to a video of a ship my husband launched at a company in Wisconsin, where his title was Launch Master.  http://youtu.be/jMusbHeQlKs  He launched 56 ships with this side launch system that he designed before he left the company, and not one of the them ever sank! ;-) Sorry honey, I just had to give you a poke.

This past week, acting as the Dock Master for a different shipbuilding company in Alabama,  he launched a ship, but in a very different way. Instead of sliding it into the water sideways, they move the ship on to a barge, float it down the bay, then off load it on to a dry dock, that then lowers the ship into the water. While the process is much less exciting, the end result is pretty impressive.

In fact, it is so impressive, that  Cars 2, featured it in the movie, and manufactured a toy called "Tony the Tri -Hull" !

I am very proud of  my Dock Master, and I am impressed everyday, by how intelligent he is, and the amazing career he has!

7 comments:

  1. Great writing Lynn! Very interesting... :)

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  2. Thank you Karen! I appreciate your comment.

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  3. Congrats to Jim, the DockMaster. I knew he was destined for greatness when we presided over the Latin banquet many years ago as emperor and empress:)

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  4. I hear, technically you were married for that evening! lol Thank you for your comment, and reading the blog!

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  5. Very impressive!He has come a long way from the hydroplane he built as a teenager (which was also pretty cool)

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