THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090415
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: My Turn
SOURCE: Jack Dorsey
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The Navy is showing signs of getting out of the tugboat business - those powerful, gray, smoky, whistle-belching monsters that have been pushing the fleet around for decades.
They've done it over at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, replacing the Navy crew of a tug there with civilian mariners.
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard apparently has gotten out of the tug business altogether, hiring both civilian tugs and civilian crews.
The same thing has happened at Puget Sound and Portsmouth (Kittery, Maine) naval shipyards.
The reason is fiscal and related purely to the downsizing of the military, say officials at the Navy's Sea Systems Command in Washington.
In April 1993, NAVSEA was directed to begin converting the service craft function at its shipyards to a civilian operation, with a complete transition expected by the end of this fiscal year.
At the Navy yard in Portsmouth, there simply weren't enough military personnel left in the engineman and electrician ratings to staff the tugs, officials have said. And the Navy wasn't replacing them with any other personnel.
So the shipyard decided to send the work out, awarding a $96,685 contract to U.S. Marine Management Inc. of Norfolk to operate the Navy tugboat for 11 weeks, or until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.
The next contract, which will run through the end of December, will require a commercial tug and crew. After that, the shipyard will seek a multi-year contract to keep the civilian tug and crew operating.
Using a civilian crew for some of the Navy's ships is not a new concept. The Military Sealift Command has been doing that for years with its fleet of auxiliary ships - fleet oilers, cargo ships, research vessels and transports - while keeping aboard a small Navy communications unit in most cases.
And civilian mariners also point out that privatizing such nonmilitary functions, especially in peacetime, provides a boost to members of the Seafarers International Union and other groups.
It's what McAllister Brothers, Allied Towing, Moran Towing and other civilian tug outfits in Hampton Roads would like.
Civilians also can do the job more cheaply, at least at the shipyard, according to the Navy.
The Navy used 13 members per tug crew at the Norfolk shipyard, including those who performed maintenance and other support, officials said.
Apparently, Marine Management Inc. will do the work with a crew of six, using two as watchmen at night, according to its contract.
Civilian tugs often can be seen nudging big Navy gray hulls around the Norfolk waterfront, helping out the Navy tugs. It generally takes seven tugs to safely dock something as big as a 1,090-foot, five-story high aircraft carrier.
But there's just something sad about this group of Navy tugboats - there are about a dozen working out of the Norfolk Naval Station - possibly going out of business.
There's also something sad if their craft masters - usually chief petty officers - are forced to give up their trade. After all, what else can a crusty old chief, with a reputation as rough, hard-headed and grouchy, get to do in the Navy?
Now, no one has said that all of the Navy's tugs will go away.
Asked whether the latest changes appear to be a Navy-wide trend, a shipyard spokesman said he couldn't determine yet.
``However,'' he said, ``this changeover is a direct result of military downsizing and the federal government's trend to privatize where possible.'' by CNB