Coast Guard cutter damaged by Hurricane Katrina is christened

The Associated Press

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- The first large Coast Guard cutter to be built in 35 years was christened Saturday, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina damaged it in the shipyard during construction.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff marked Veterans Day by helping christen the 418-foot, 4,300-ton Bertholf, which the Coast Guard calls a "national security cutter." It is about a third larger than the class of ships it replaces.

The Coast Guard ordered the Bertholf and seven other deep-water cutters from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin as part of a multibillion-dollar program to replace an aging fleet.

Rescue operations aren't the only use for the new high-endurance ships. The Coast Guard says they also play critical roles in fighting terrorism, drug smuggling and illegal immigration.

Chertoff said the Bertholf's crew "will have to man the line of defense for a critical new era, where our ports and our shipping lanes are threatened by an ideology of hatred and an enemy that wants to bring the war to America's shores."

The Bertholf, named for the Coast Guard's first commandant, Ellsworth Price Bertholf, was under construction at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' shipyard in Pascagoula when Katrina slammed ashore Aug. 29, 2005.

Katrina's 25-foot storm surge pounded Pascagoula, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to the shipyard. Repairs on the Bertholf began within two weeks.

Northrop Grumman, with more than 10,000 employees in Pascagoula, is Mississippi's largest private employer. The company bills itself as the world's largest military shipbuilder, and its shipyards in Gulfport and New Orleans also were damaged by Katrina.

Philip Teel, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems president, said many employees whose homes were destroyed by the hurricane delayed their own rebuilding efforts to work on the Bertholf.

"That level of commitment and dedication is rare," Teel said.

The Bertholf, which is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2008, has vastly superior communications and weapons systems, a larger flight deck and more comfortable living quarters than its predecessors, the Coast Guard said.

"The Bertholf and her successors will be the most capable and interoperable cutters the service has ever had, ready for all threats and all hazards in a changing world," said Admiral Thad Allen, the Coast Guard's commandant.

A crowd of several hundred, including a group of Coast Guard veterans, applauded as Chertoff's wife, Meryl, smashed a bottle of champagne across the Bertholf's bow.

"When I see a ship like that, my heart beats. It's a beautiful ship," said Gene Dugan, 84, of Boynton Beach, Fla., who served on an 83-foot cutter during World War II.