DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110737

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   59 lines

DOUBLE EAGLE-CLASS TANKER TAKES FLIGHTNEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING COMPARES ITS NEW COMMERCIAL TANKER VENTURE WITH THE BALD EAGLE DURING CEREMONIES TO CHRISTEN THE FIRST COMMERCIAL SHIP IT HAS BUILT IN 15 YEARS.

Newport News Shipbuilding calls the commercial tankers it is building the Double Eagle-class.

``It's an appropriate name,'' said William P. Fricks, the shipyard's chairman and chief executive.

Double Eagle refers to the bald eagle, the symbol of the United States, which, after years on the brink of extinction, has been brought back with careful management and sound planning.

``The same can be said about commercial shipbuilding'' in the United States, Fricks said. ``It, too, bordered on extinction.''

No more. Fricks' comments came Wednesday at the christening of the American Progress, a Double Eagle tanker that Newport News Shipbuilding constructed for Mobil Corp. The tanker is the first commercial ship the yard has delivered since 1981, and the first of nine Double Eagles the shipyard is building for three buyers.

After one missed attempt, the ship's sponsor, Cynthia J. Shevlin, swung a small hammer a second time, hitting the mark and releasing a bottle of sparkling wine that swung down and smashed against the hull of the 46,000-ton tanker.

With that, the 600-foot ship officially became the American Progress, with all the hopes the name implies pinned to it by the 300 shipbuilders, oil executives and others in the maritime community assembled for the christening.

This ship ``truly heralds a new era of American progress,'' said Gerhard Kurz, president of Mobil Shipping and Transportation Co.

Kurz said he hopes the tanker's success will instill confidence in other ship buyers to turn to U.S. yards and encourage the yard to continue commercial shipbuilding.

With the United States' growing dependence of foreign trade, commercial shipbuilding is an important industry to sustain, Kurz said.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Adm. Robert Kramek, the Coast Guard commandant, said: ``This milestone marks the beginning of American shipyards building ships on par with their foreign counterparts and for the American public to enjoy an increased level of environmental security.''

American Progress is the first new U.S.-flag commercial double-hulled tanker built to the specifications of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. That law, passed in response to the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, requires all single-hulled vessels transporting oil and petroleum products in U.S. waters to be replaced by 2015.

A double hull adds another layer of steel between the oil and the water, so that there likely won't be a spill if the tanker collides with a rock or another vessel.

American Progress is replacing the single-hulled Seminole in Mobil's fleet. The tanker will haul gasoline between a Texas refinery and Florida ports.

``Every time this ship docks in Florida she'll deliver enough gasoline to fuel 30,000 cars for a year,'' said Brian Baker, chief operating officer of Mobil North America Marketing and Refining.

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