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Litton Ship Systems Launches SS Austral Envoy- First Ship Launched From New Shipyard The recent christening of the Austral Envoy at Litton Indus- tries' new $130 million shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss, inaugurated a new method of ship launching in the United States. With the ex- ception of the splash from the champagne bottle, the new Farrell Lines containership was not launched in the usual fashion. In- stead of a slide down the shipway as in a traditional launching, the Austral Envoy was transferred from land to water by way of a new launch platform system de- signed by Crandall Dry Dock En- gineers, Inc., Cambridge, Mass. This system is part of the assem- bly-line production process being utilized by Litton Ship Systems in the building of the Austral En- voy and her three sisterships, Aus- tral Ensign, Austral Endurance and Austral Entente. The Austral Envoy was spon- sored by Lady Phyllis Bates, wife of the Hon. Sir John Bates, C.B.E., Australian consul general in New York. Mrs. Rudi E. Tolnay of Bronxville, N.Y., attended the sponsor as matron of honor. Speak- ers at the launching included Vice Adm. Arthur R. Gralla, USN, com- mander, Military Sealift Com- mand ; Ellis Gardner, senior vice- president, heading Litton's Marine Group, and Dr. R.L. Roderick, president of Litton Ship Systems Division of Litton Industries. The new Litton "shipyard of the future" employs new shipbuild- ing concepts of fabrication, hand- ling and assembly of ship com- ponents, which are all brought together in an integration area adjacent to a waterfront bulkhead. The launching of the ship is the final operation of this integrated system of ship construction. The floating dry dock, of the Crandall Dry Dock Engineers' sectional self-docking type with the wing on one side removable for transfer, was selected for this operation be- cause of its unique qualities. Launching is accomplished from the yard, located 12 feet above wa- ter level, to a floating attitude as Shown in the photographs to the right and as described in the Feb- ruary 15, 1971 issue of Maritime Reporter/Engineering News. This dock has the capacity to launch vessels weighing up to 35,000 tons light displacement. It has an over- all length of 960 feet and width of 212 feet (the clear width between wing walls is 180 feet). The pon- toons are 24 feet deep for lift-off from the underwater foundation. The structural strength permits a lineal loading of 60 tons per foot of dock length. The 668-foot containership, Aus- tral Envoy, will carry cargo and passengers on Farrell's Australian/ New Zealand service route. The (Continued next page) LAUNCHING OF S/S AUSTRAL ENVOY: left to right, Sir Laurence Mclntyre, Australian Ambassador to the United Nations; Sir John Bates, Australian Consul General in New York; Mrs. Rudi E. Tolnay, matron of honor; Honorable Robert L. Lawrence, New Zealand Consul General in New York; A.C. Weeks, P.R., Litton; Lady Phyllis Bates, sponsor; L.C. Hoffman, Assistant Administrator for Operations, Maritime Administration; Thomas J. Smith, president, Farrell Lines; James A. Farrell Jr., chairman, Farrell Lines; Adm. Arthur R. Gralla, Commander, Military Sealift Command; Honorable John J. Rooney, House Appropriations Committee; Harold Gray, senior executive vice president, Litton, and Dr. R.L. Roderick, president, Litton Ship Systems. 1. The Austral Envoy prior to launching on the shipyard's integration area where the various modules of the ship were joined together to form the completed hull. 3. The Austral Envoy in its launching position on the Crandall floating dock. In this view, the portable wing-wall sections are being put in position. The platform rests on an underwater foundation. At high tide the platform is dewatered and floats free so that it can be moved into the ship channel where actual launching takes place. 4. The launching platform with the ship is moved into the middle of the ship channel by means of a special out-haul system utilizing two self-contained mooring winches and two spring-line winches. The dock is ballasted by 48 pumps, powered by on-board generating equipment, and the ship is floated off the platform. The traditional bottle of champagne is broken at this time by means of electronically operated release activated by the sponsor. The reverse process can be used to dry dock a ship. 2. In this view the ship has been moved onto the launching platform. This transfer from share to platform is by means of a special wheel-on-rail transfer system. The total transfer distcnce is about 300 feet and required four hours to complete, as the ship was moved at a rate of 22 inches a minute. The platform can support 57,000 tons. 18 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
