Bollinger, Coast Guard celebrate ship’s early delivery despite storm
Officials from Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport joined the Coast Guard this week to commission one of the cuttters the company delivered ahead of schedule despite obstacles created by Hurricane Ida.
The John Scheuerman is the fifth of six Bollinger-built cutters destined for operations in Manama, Bahrain, to support U.S. interests in southwest Asia and the Middle East.
“While every commissioning is special, this particular vessel – especially when and how it was delivered – means a great deal to our team,” Bollinger President and CEO Ben Bordelon said during the ceremony Wednesday in Tampa, Florida.
“This past August Hurricane Ida made landfall at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with winds just short of a Category 5 hurricane, clocking in at 150 mph. Despite the odds stacked against us, our team persevered and the USCGC John Scheuerman was delivered on Oct. 21, a full week ahead of schedule,” he said.
“This vessel and this commissioning represent a major win that our team needed and deserved,” Bordelon said. “It reflects the resilience, commitment and tenacity of the 650 skilled men and women that built it. With the exception of my family, I’ve never been more proud of anything that I’ve ever been a part of.”
More:Lockport-based Bollinger Shipyards to supply another component to help build Navy subs
Category 4 Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29, damaged Bollinger’s facilities at the south Lafourche port, along with its yards in Lockport, Larose and Houma.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz lauded the job Bordelon and Bollinger’s employees did despite the storm.
“We know what your men and women did and we know how you inspire them to come to work, to have something to rally around, and this product behind us is a testament to the Cajun toughness of Bollinger Shipyards and its employees,” Schultz said during the ceremony. “I could not sleep better at night knowing our men and women of the Navy
and the Coast Guard in that challenging region of the world are aboard highly-capable, Bollinger-built ships.”
The Coast Guard took delivery of the 154-foot cutter in October in Key West, Florida.
It’s the 169th vessel the company has delivered to the Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 46th Fast Response Cutter completed under the current program, which started in 2008.
Each cutter costs about $65 million, and the entire program will cost the Coast Guard more than $3.7 billion, federal records show. The cutters replace the 110-foot Island Class Patrol Boats built by Bollinger 30 years ago.
The final in the six-ship series, the Clarence Sutphin, was delivered to the Coast Guard in January.
Last year, Bollinger submitted a proposal to build the Coast Guard’s new Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters. If chosen, Bollinger would build 11 of the ships over the next decade, helping to sustain the company’s workforce through 2031.
The Coast Guard plans to build 25 of the offshore cutters, with an average cost of $411 million apiece, federal records show.
— Courier and Daily Comet Executive Editor Keith Magill can be reached at 857-2201 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CourierEditor.
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