If you've been a marine journalist for 25 years like I have, you are sure to have accumulated plenty of memories traipsing around shipyards and attending keel laying, launching, christening and delivery ceremonies. I don't think you can fully appreciate how hard, hot and dirty shipbuilding is until you've visited a shipyard in Louisiana on an oppressively hot, sticky day in the middle of August. I was just walking around and I was soaked. I can only imagine what it was like to be welding in those conditions. At a time when U.S. automakers are struggling to survive, shipbuilding and repair remains a vital part of the U.S. manufacturing sector. As of 2006, there were 85,300 employees at U.S. shipbuilding and repair yards and another 53,900 at boatbuilding facilities, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census.
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