Customer Reviews

The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hard hats off to Michael Sanders for a magnificent book! He has presented a thoroughly researched and extremely well written account of life inside Bath Iron Works. In the space of only 236 pages, he manages to portray just how difficult and dangerous an occupation shipbuilding is.(I know; I currently work at Bath Iron Works and spent several months on the USS Donald Cook.) I found the book to contain just the right combination of the basics of ship design and construction, and a wonderful human interest story. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

I could not put this book down. "The Yard" is without a doubt the best industrial/military history I have read in years. Sanders delivers a complete understanding of the incredible complexity in building a warship, the interactions of the many trades involved, the context of the community and the workers, and the military-industrial dialogue necessary to the realization of the Aegis program. In addition, Sanders , in the most dramatic and eloquent chapter, describes in detail the launching of the Donald S. Cooke, a process with technological antecedents to the beginnings of shipbuilding history. Because of competition from technically advanced shipbuilding yards, Bath Ironworks will launch its last vessel from the traditional ways this winter. A massive renovation of the yard with a floating drydock for launching vessels is currently underway . Sanders has done a superb job describing the entire process from the first steel bending to the menu served on the comissioning cruise. He deserves top honors for "The Yard".

This book details the building and fitting out of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, the Donald Cook, at Bath Iron Works, Maine. From the initial design, cutting and bending plate, assembling the modules, installation, launch, crew training and trials, the whole process is described through the stories of the men and woman who build and work on the Destroyers. A number of photographs and illustrations help the reader to understand the various processes involved, although the book is mostly text. Sanders has an easy writing style that lets him relate complex details in an easily understandable way. When you put this book down, you will have a greater understanding of not only warship construction, but why people do difficult, dangerous work for less than they might make elsewhere. You will also learn a bit about piloting, how to launch a large ship, and the lore of commissioning ceremonies, and even the training of a ship's crew.

I really enjoyed this book a lot, and recommend it to those interested in modern warships and their construction.

Everybody else seems to give this book high marks, but I was a little disappointed. The subtitle indicated that the book would be about building a ship. I didn't find that completely true. There are a few descriptions of the early stages of the construction and a wonderful description of the launch, but not much in between. Sanders spends a third of the book describing the Navy crew and some collateral issues that may have been intersting, but not really about building a ship. I wonder if any of my co-reviewers remember any discussion about installing the machinery or putting on the propellers. To be brief, I think the book lacks focus. According to the jacket, this is the author's first work. He has edited books previously. OK, so we give him some slack here, but maybe he should have spent some time in editing his own work.

Every summer, thousands of people drive through Bath on their way to coastal Maine. If they are like this reviewer, many of them look at the Bath Iron Works as they pass by and wonder how those worthy ships get built. Well, wonder no longer. The Yard tells the story, and tells it very well.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. "The Yard" provides a very succinct description of how Bath Iron Works builds Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for the U.S. Navy. The details are interesting, but not overly technical. Sanders does a fine job of guiding the reader through the process of building a ship from start to finish, without letting the story drag. The reader learns a lot not only about ships, but also about the roles and contributions of the many different skilled workers involved, and the constant tension between management and labor.

"The Yard" really reads more like a human-interest story rather than a technical manual. The author's voice sounds a LOT like Tom Clancy, especially as we get to know the people who work on the "deckplates" of this shipyard.

A fast, fun, worthwhile read for military buffs and management students alike! Awarded four stars for the half-dozen or so blatantly obvious errors in syntax that the editors should have picked up, as well as for the author's ever-so-slight "spin" that detracted from, rather than added to the story.

The disaster of the USS Cole should give new meaning to this book and the men who build these ships. The complexity of shipbuilding risks becoming a lost art. Part of why we won WWII was that the Japanese could not believe we could rebuild "lost" ships so fast. In this book, their experts scoff at our techniques. The surviving crew and the ship itself are testament to the design and building of modern surface ships.

I served on a ship with an saluminum superstructure, and thank God every day it never got hit.

The author does well in describing the construction of a modern destroyer which would seem to be fairly mundane. However, he makes the construction, and particularly the launch fairly exciting with good descriptions of the workers manners and feelings about the ship and their work. In the last chapter he relates, after the launch, how the speakers, guests, company executives, leave the ceremonies for further celebration, while the men who built the ship put away their tools and head for home. It reminded me of all of the highway and building ribbon cuttings where the people who do the work are left out of the celebrating while those of minor roles soak up the adulation.

A great story about craftmanship, pride of workmanship and dedication. The Bath Iron Works does a great job building ships of war and they do it with a sense of pride and craftmanship which is all too rare in our country today. This is a wonderful tale about the people at the yard. Read it!

I've only made it to page 50 and don't know if I can continue. For a guy that makes a living as an author he has seen fit to exclude any quotation marks in this book. Sometimes I'm halfway through a paragraph before I realize that it is actually a quote from somebody that I am reading (or is supposed to be a quote). The back cover shows that he was formerly a book editor. Ha! I am not an English Grammer major, but it is difficult for me to read something that is incorrectly written.