BATH

Aside from Bath Iron Works’ 5,700 employees, those living in or visiting the Midcoast may have little idea what happens beyond the great green walls and iron gates that line upper Washington Street. Coming soon, that may change, thanks to an upcoming exhibit at Maine Maritime that promises an inside view of the manufacturer of some of the most advanced warships afloat.

A new, permanent 1,000-squarefoot exhibit at the museum will be dedicated to Bath Iron Works, past, present, and future. “BIW: Building America’s Navy,” produced in collaboration with the shipyard, will open as part of the museum’s annual Community Day on May 19. Housed in the former Education Building located at the south end of the museum’s campus, the new exhibit will provide visitors with an exclusive look at the shipyard’s innovative approaches to design through a number of interactive elements including a touch-sensitive wall illustrating ship design and simulated CIC screens.

A new theater space will feature a behind-the-scenes video of the shipbuilding process to give guests a glimpse of life inside the yard. The entrance hallway to the exhibit will be designed to mimic a below decks passageway of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers built at the shipyard, including overheard cables and appropriate paint scheme.

“BIW is so obvious to our visitors,”

Museum Curator of Exhibits Chris Timm said. “You go out to our outfitting pier, and there’s this gigantic blue dry dock in plain site. Considering we focus on shipbuilding — we want to tell that story.”

The shipyard has a history that stretches back to the 1880s, when Bath resident Thomas W. Hyde began exploring iron shipbuilding. However, Timm noted how the museum wanted to take a look at BIW in the present day.

The exhibit will try to place the shipyard in terms of its evolution, outlining why it’s significant and the process that goes into building an advanced warship at the modern day labyrinthine complex.

Timm likened the shipyard as more than a factory but a production site and design center using state of the art technology in both designing and building a vessel.

“There’s a huge wealth of new technologies and approaches used there,” Timm said.

In parallel to that, the exhibit will incorporate some new tech of its own, including a display that uses touch-sensitive conductive ink to help a schematic of a vessel come to life.

The exhibit fits into the museum’s mission of conveying Maine shipbuilding heritage of the past, present and future.

“We draw a very diverse audience, from tourists to maritime historians to Navy veterans,” said Katie Spiridakis, the museum’s marketing and communications manager. “We’re creating something broad enough so that it has the appeal, but specific enough so you can learn something.”

Spiridakis noted that this will be the largest, contemporary exhibit the museum has presented so far.

BIW didn’t respond directly for comment, but did note in its company newsletter how past and present shipyard personnel contributed to the exhibit. That includes the crew of the future USS Michael Monsoor and commanding officer Capt. Scott Smith, providing voice-overs for sound effects mimicking a vessel’s public address system.

“Nick Nichols and Bill Haggett (former BIW CEO) have done a lot of work behind the scenes contacting various suppliers for artifacts,” the newsletter quotes Marty Lakeman, a retired trades management consultant at the shipyard.

Bath Iron Works is not without controversy. Peace activists often decry the fact that the facility is used to make destroyers, which are the backbone of the U.S. Navy. The museum is cognizant of that, but also cognizant of the role the shipyard plays in the community.

“From a local’s perspective, it’s such an institution,” Spiridakis said. “When you think about the human stories that are going to play into this exhibit, I really imagine it being a place of pride for the generations of people who have spent their entire adult lives working there. They can come to this exhibit and say, ‘I was part of this. This is what I did.’ It’s a huge part of Bath’s story.”

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

DONATIONS

Maine Maritime Museum is asking current and former Bath Iron Works employees for donations of shipyard-related personal items or memorabilia for possible use in the new exhibit. The items will help illustrate the personal stories of shipyard workers.

Objects for consideration can be brought to the front desk of the museum from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Donations must be a person’s own personal item, and donations will not be returned and cannot be guaranteed a place in the exhibit.

COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE

To help support “BIW: Building America’s Navy,” Maine Maritime Museum is offering the opportunity to honor a shipbuilder, sailor or anyone with ties to BIW with a commemorative plaque. Plaques are available in two sizes: 5 x 3 inches and 10×8 inches for donations of $250 and $500,  respectively. The custom plaques will be permanently on display on the exterior of the exhibit, so that they are accessible to the public outside of museum hours. For details, contact Manager of Development Operations Rebecca Roche at (207) 443-1316 x327 or roche@maritimeme.org.

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