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Unique Ship Soon To Cast Off

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By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2008

TAMPA The world's largest ship for laying pipe in deep water - a visitor to the Port of Tampa this month - will be leaving this week, according to the Tampa Bay Shipbuilding & Repair Co. The project, which required restructuring a dry dock to accommodate a vessel that's longer than two football fields, is one of the latest to benefit the port's three competing shipyards.

"Ship repair is booming," said Bill Hind, general manager of Tampa Bay Shipbuilding & Repair, which has about 800 employees at its Hooker's Point facility plus another 100 painting subcontracting workers. "I suspect the high price of oil is energizing operations."

The 668-foot-long Deep Blue has been used by the international marine company Technip on projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Hind said. The ship was built in South Korea in 2001 and has the capability to lay pipe at depths of up to 8,202 feet.

"It is an impressive ship, the world's most advanced vessel" for such work, Hind said.

The ship repair company did not reveal the amount of the contract for its work on Deep Blue, which included steel repairs and modifying holding tanks. The ship arrived in Tampa about two weeks ago.

The Deep Blue is in full view of motorists on the eastern portion of Davis Islands, with its pipe-laying tower and pipe reels setting it apart from other vessels. It caught the attention of Colette Eddy, president of Aerial Innovations of Florida, which provides aerial photos for construction, environmental and other business uses. She saw the ship on a flight from Peter O. Knight Airport and turned her observation into a business assignment for her company.

"I looked down and I said, 'My God, that's the biggest ship I've ever seen in their dry dock,'" Eddy said.

Actually, it's not the largest ship but it likely is the heaviest that Tampa Bay Shipbuilding has worked on, the company reported. The Deep Blue is about 52 feet shorter than the Holland America Line cruise ship Veendam that has operated at the Port of Tampa.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics@tampatrib.com

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