Twin towers steel for New Orleans warship
Warship built out of Twin Towers wreckage
Tom Baldwin, New Orleans
May 23, 2006
IN a city still emerging from the floods of Hurricane Katrina, a ship has begun to rise from the ashes of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Bringing together the US's two great calamities of the 21st century, the USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tonnes of steel from the collapsed World Trade Centre.
There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship's hull.
Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it.
Tony Quaglino postponed his retirement over the ship: "I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud."
Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: "Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it's about." The ship, being built by Northrop Grumman on the banks of the Mississippi, should be ready to join the US Navy next year.
Later vessels in its class will include USS Arlington - named after the section of the Pentagon that was also hit by an airliner on September 11, 2001 - and USS Somerset, in memory of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, as passengers struggled with al-Qa'ida hijackers.
Mr Clement said it would be fitting if USS New York's first mission was to capture Osama bin Laden. He said: "They hit us first, but out of a tragedy a good thing has come, in that we're building a ship which can help take those people out."
The $US1 billion ($1.32 billion) vessel is one of a new generation of amphibious assault ships capable of landing 700 marines on a coast almost anywhere without the need for a port.
Although the hurricane smashed its way through the shipyard, the half-completed New York survived intact. The same cannot be said for the homes of some of its builders. About 200 are still living at the shipyard in the hastily set up "Camp Katrina".
They include Earl Jones. More than eight months after Katrina, he does not know if his home in the Lower Ninth ward will be rebuilt. "The insurance company won't even talk to us," he said. "We're having to hire lawyers to chase 'em."
Mr Jones's wife was evacuated to Baton Rouge and is seriously ill with breast cancer and pneumonia. "She ain't handling very well me being away all the time," he said.
Katrina and 9/11 are two disasters that continue to produce very different responses from the US. Mr Jones does not want his old home enshrined in a $US1 billion fighting machine, but a small insurance cheque might help.
The Times
Tom Baldwin, New Orleans
May 23, 2006
IN a city still emerging from the floods of Hurricane Katrina, a ship has begun to rise from the ashes of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Bringing together the US's two great calamities of the 21st century, the USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tonnes of steel from the collapsed World Trade Centre.
There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship's hull.
Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it.
Tony Quaglino postponed his retirement over the ship: "I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud."
Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: "Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it's about." The ship, being built by Northrop Grumman on the banks of the Mississippi, should be ready to join the US Navy next year.
Later vessels in its class will include USS Arlington - named after the section of the Pentagon that was also hit by an airliner on September 11, 2001 - and USS Somerset, in memory of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, as passengers struggled with al-Qa'ida hijackers.
Mr Clement said it would be fitting if USS New York's first mission was to capture Osama bin Laden. He said: "They hit us first, but out of a tragedy a good thing has come, in that we're building a ship which can help take those people out."
The $US1 billion ($1.32 billion) vessel is one of a new generation of amphibious assault ships capable of landing 700 marines on a coast almost anywhere without the need for a port.
Although the hurricane smashed its way through the shipyard, the half-completed New York survived intact. The same cannot be said for the homes of some of its builders. About 200 are still living at the shipyard in the hastily set up "Camp Katrina".
They include Earl Jones. More than eight months after Katrina, he does not know if his home in the Lower Ninth ward will be rebuilt. "The insurance company won't even talk to us," he said. "We're having to hire lawyers to chase 'em."
Mr Jones's wife was evacuated to Baton Rouge and is seriously ill with breast cancer and pneumonia. "She ain't handling very well me being away all the time," he said.
Katrina and 9/11 are two disasters that continue to produce very different responses from the US. Mr Jones does not want his old home enshrined in a $US1 billion fighting machine, but a small insurance cheque might help.
The Times
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