By Cindy Konrad (gCaptain) On October 19, 2011 ,under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, a $30 billion project, Seaspan won a major contract to rebuild the Canadian government’s non combat vessels. “If it does not have a gun and larger than 1000 gross tons we are building it here,” said Brian Cater, President of Seaspan. This includes the Canadian Coast Guard and the non combat vessels in the Royal Canadian Navy fleet. “That was the day when everything changed, and this shipyard (which you will see in a minute ) went from a jurassic shipyard to quite frankly the most modern and state of the art shipyard in the world, not just in North America , in the world ” said Jonathan Whitworth, CEO Seaspan ULC.

The shipyard needed to be rebuilt. Along with investing in the facility – including building the largest gantry crane in Canada – Seaspan also invested in its people. They have a 3 year program to support Aboriginals in trade, a 3 year commitment to support women in trade and a 3 year donation agreement with the Canada Welding Association to promote welding at a high school level. With these investments, Seaspan is optimistic it can be competitive beyond the 20-30 year non combat contract.

To help showcase the new facilities gCaptain was invited to Vancouver Canada for a photo tour of the newly rebuilt facilities at Seaspan Shipyard. Here are the photos I took: