At Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding
employees work around the clock to create and repair
these massive floating vessels.
To understand how it all works,
I met supervisor of skilled trades, Joel Kaczmarowski.
- Shipbuilding is an ancient trade
that we now do with modern techniques, modern equipment.
The science that goes into welding and metallurgy
and steel fitting is pretty intense.
It's fun to see that every day.
There's a lot of moving pieces.
We receive raw steel from the mill.
Comes in on trucks.
We start by: all the plate steel that comes in,
it all gets blasted and primed.
After that, it moves through our factory
where parts are cut out of that plate.
They're formed, they're made.
After that, it moves to assembly.
We sometimes take thousands of parts and move them
and build them into sections.
We take those sections,
move them out to our graving dock where
we might put two,
sometimes three of them together.
Modular parts of our ships that we build.
We set those down on the dock.
After that process,
after they're all-welded, fit up, painted,
that floats out of there
almost a complete vessel.
Exciting to be a part of!
- Exciting does describe the atmosphere throughout the yard
including in the building
where I met welder Gabriel Host-Jablonski.
- The entire nature of my job
is to take two pieces of metal and make them one,
which is really great because even when we mess up "a lot,"
we just cut them apart and make them one again.
- Oh, nice! - It is actually very satisfying.
- With that,
it was time for sparks to fly.
[welding gun's electric arc sizzles]
- Oh, wow!
Is the metal still solidifying,
or is it still kind of in a liquid state?
- No, it's going to be rock solid now,
but it's very, very hot.
What we've done is just pumped a whole lot of energy into it
through the metal,
essentially fusing it all together.
- From welders to steel fitters,
satisfaction in the work
is something I hear throughout the shipyard
including from Kylie Owens.
- I am a steel fitter.
I tack, torch,
a little bit of everything for the welders,
put the boat together,
before you get full...
- Angela: Full assemblage? - Kylie: Full like that, yeah.
I kind of do all that stuff so.
- Nice! [birds call "mew, keow"]
So, how long have you been doing steel fitting?
- Two years. - Two years.
How did you get into it?
- Believe it or not, I was working at McDonald's,
and I was kind of bored
and wanted to learn something new.
And a buddy of mine told me to apply here.
And I did, and I've been here ever since.
- So, how has it been?
- It's a lot different.
It takes a lot of physical differences to do this job
compared to others.
No matter how tough the job may get,
one thing everyone has in common
is a love for what they do.
- Some of the ships we work on,
they were built long before I started my career.
And the ships we're building now,
they'll be sailing the Great Lakes
long after I retire.
So, it's cool to be a part of that.
- I love working here.
For me, as a welder, I get a variety of different work
and what I can say is most of us
really enjoy this work
because it's physical, it's honest,
and very proud of this work.
We show up, work hard every day,
and we do like the whistle at the end of the day
to let us know it's time to go home sometimes, too.
But I think for most of us the grandiose nature of our job,
to create something so big
makes us feel like little kids playing on a boat.
[ship horn blares]