The following are memories of Carl Bachman Jr.'s time at Sun Ship that include his involvement in the Sun 800's removal of a deck section from the Pennsylvania Sun (H-610) while undergoing ship repair/conversion work at Sun Ship c:1976.
We wish to thank Carl for 'sharing-the-Memories' of his time at Sun Ship. Carl was the first 'Metal Preparation Apprentice' at Sun Ship. His apprenticeship program was from 1976 to 1979 and covered training in all the Hull Division departments; Welding, Burning, Numerical Control Burning Machine Shop, Ship Fitting, Non-Destructive Testing, etc. Upon graduating his apprenticeship, Carl moved on to lead the Apprenticeship Program and ultimately moved into the Production Control Department. He left the Yard in 1981 after the announcement that the Yard would be sold to Penn Ship. Carl is currently a Senior Manager/Philadelphia Project Services Leader for Hargrove Engineers.
We would also like to thank Don J. Tywoniw, Editor and Production Manager at Wire Rope News & Sling Technology for his efforts in preparing Carl's article for publication in the April, 2020 edition of their periodical.
In addition, our thanks to Rich Janney of the Welding dept (59D) for sharing his photographs of our Hull 683, named HTSC-1. Our Sun 800 derrick barge was utilized during the construction of Sun Ship's last hull contract, that was subcontracted to the Bath Iron Works. The HTSC-1 was launched on 2/12/1982. Some of Rich's photographs were used in this article and one is shown on the cover page below...
Note 1: The Sun 800 was the largest floating derrick crane on the East Coast. Penn Ship later increased the lifting capacity of the crane from 800 to 1000 tons and it was renamed the Penn 1000 in 1982. Later, the derrick crane was acquired by Donjon Marine and renamed the Chesapeake 1000 and she is currently in service at this time-SSHS
