A Tradition of Maritime Excellence

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in late August and I was excited for the 10th Annual Death's Door BBQ Competition held on Washington Island. If you are not familiar, Washington Island is a year round Island community located approximately 5 miles off the northeast tip of the Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin.  If you are a maritime history buff I recommend you research Death's Door or “Porte des Morts”, as originally named.

Unfortunately the weather radar had a storm front moving quickly towards our little Central Wisconsin airport. The thought of being grounded was horrible but the thought of not eating BBQ all day was even worse! The flight mission on this Saturday was to quickly depart Central Wisconsin and make the one hour trip to the beautiful island between the Bay of Green Bay and Lake Michigan.

Upon flying over Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin I looked down and noticed I was over an icon in the shipbuilding industry, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS). Fincantieri operates three Wisconsin shipyards in Marinette, Sturgeon Bay, and Green Bay. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS) is a 63-acre custom-built facility designed for efficient new construction, major conversions, repairs, and sustainment of commercial, Coast Guard, and Army Corps of Engineers’ vessels. As part of the Fincantieri Marine Group, FBS traces its history of building quality ships in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. back to 1918. They are considered the premier western designer and shipbuilder. (Taken From Fincantieri Marine Group Website)

Most recently, Bay Shipbuilding delivered the 639-ft. bulk carrier, M/V Mark W. Barker, to its owner, Interlake Maritime Services, July 22, 2022. The vessel is significant for several reasons, but most noteworthy is it’s the first of its kind to have been built by a Great Lakes shipyard in more than 35 years. (Taken From Fincantieri Marine Group Website)

The Above Photo is of the M/V Mark W. Barker. Photo Taken From Fincantieri Marine Group Website

The cover image I took is of three of the many bulk freighters that move commodities around the Great Lakes region! I believe the one on the left is a mighty 1,000 footer! As a child I grew up watching their sister company (Marinette Marine) build Coast Guard ships and most recently several mighty Naval vessels. Proudly, over the past two decades I have had the pleasure of conducting condition monitoring, balancing and laser alignment on many of the vessels of the Great Lakes fleet and Coast Guard. If you are in the maritime industry and have a condition monitoring need, please reach out, I will provide you a solution!!

Wisconsin is steeped in shipbuilding history dating back almost 200 years. Milwaukee and Manitowoc were home to the first shipyards in Wisconsin, opening in the mid-1830s. Fincantieri Marine Group continues to service this vital industry and carry the torch of shipbuilding excellence in Wisconsin!!

I hope you enjoyed this months offering as much as I enjoyed writing it and I look forward to sharing again with you all next month. Until then, Blue Skies and Tailwinds!!

Matthew Knuth

Photo Credit: Matthew Knuth