conversion was part of the US government 19
initiative Maritech, the objective of which was
to turn the local shipyards into internationally
competitive commercial shipyards. Ingalls
shipyard was one of four naval yards
Deltamarin was revamping.
Alf Björkman described the project in an
interview in Turun Sanomat: “It’s mostly a
question of reducing the staff at the shipyard.
Naval shipyards tend to have large and
complex organisations, which serve the longterm
development of naval vessels. The actual
work on the shipyard doesn’t require major
changes.”
Word went across the pond, and
Deltamarin started getting queries from US
shipyards. Deltamarin was given the chance
to see the designs of several local shipyards.
Following this, the company began developing
customer relationships with Nassco, Ingalls
and Avondale.
“Not exactly ships with weapon systems,
but auxiliary ships. The exchange rate was in
our favour compared to American designers.
This episode taught us to seek work as
broadly as possible and take things on. They
won’t always lead to deals, but the customer
relationships are valuable, and can enable
things that take you forward,” says Kanerva.
Kanerva remembers an interesting episode
from this time: “The technical director of
Bazan shipyard in El Ferrol asked us to
analyse a project they had received from
the Spanish Navy based on a NATO (US)
Navy design. We went through it and had
to conclude that the design was far from
Ro-pax ferry MS
Pasiphae Palace (first
named MS Pasiphae),
one of the ships built
for Minoan Lines at
Fosen shipyard in Rissa,
Norway.
(Photo: Public domain)