Meet the legend, James Mackie. Naval Architect.

A few weeks ago we posted a couple of short videos on social media about Mr. James Mackie, a former Marinette employee who designed the side-launch system in Marinette back in the 1970s. Our digital team was able to catch up with Jim when he attended the final launch using this system, however there was so much interest in Jim and his experiences building the launch system that our team put together this video which tells more of his interesting story (and backstories).

One of the most important aspects of the final side launch is our future method of launching ships will use a shiplift to put vessels into the water. We will also have the capability to recover vessels, or take them from the water and back to land for inspections or additional work. It was a big decision to take on the expense of building the largest ship lift in the U.S., but we knew we were going to build larger vessels for the U.S. Navy, namely Constellation-class Frigates. And a shiplift made sense. So we ended up hiring Pearlson Shiplift Corp., largely because they are the best in the world at this.

As we talked with Jim Mackie, he made us aware of a connection between Jim and the Pearlson family and their business. Small world, eh?

We hope you enjoy learning more about Jim and his experiences with our ship launch system.