Damaged Navy ship arrives in Mississippi for years of repairs
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Greeted by sailors and flagwaving residents, a Navy destroyer damaged in a June collision that killed seven sailors arrived Friday for two years of repairs at a Mississippi shipyard.
The transport vessel Transshelf sailed up the Pascagoula River carrying the USS Fitzgerald.
The June 17 collision with a container ship off Japan caved in parts of the Fitzgerald above and below the waterline. Water gushed into berthing compartments, killing the sailors. Its hull was punctured twice more in November as it was loaded aboard the Transshelf.
The Navy said Friday that it will take several days for the Transshelf to unload the Fitzgerald, which will be repaired by the 11,600 employees of Ingalls Shipbuilding, a unit of Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries.
“She’s actually here and we’re starting the long process of rebuilding her and getting her back to the fleet,” said Cmdr. Garrett Miller, the ship’s commanding officer.
The Fitzgerald’s 58member crew will be based in Pascagoula for the next two years, overseeing the ship’s repair and modernization.
Ingalls was chosen to repair the ship in August and awarded an initial $63 million contract in December to rip out damaged areas.
Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said in September that it could cost $600 million combined to repair the Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain, another destroyer that was damaged in August.
The John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore in August, killing 10 sailors.
It cost $250 million for 16 months of repairs for the USS Cole, a destroyer damaged by a bombing in Yemen in 2000.