New Campbell Owner to Seek Navy Contracts

R. A. Carpenter, the marine engineering executive who earlier this week bought Campbell Industries Inc.’s San Diego shipyard, said Thursday that he plans to compete head-on with other local shipyards in the lucrative Navy ship-repair business.

If successful, Carpenter predicted that San Diego Marine Industries--the renamed local Campbell shipyard--could generate $20 million in Navy contracts within the next 14 to 18 months and employ as many as 500 workers.

Carpenter, owner of Sea Group Construction Co. and R. E. Staite Engineering Co., said he plans to use Campbell’s 35-acre facility to complete directly with National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. and Southwest Marine Inc., which have dominated San Diego’s ship-repair industry in recent years.

The facility at the foot of Eighth Avenue on San Diego Bay includes three marine railways and four floating docks capable of servicing vessels up to 3,000 tons.

Campbell, a subsidiary of privately held Marine Construction Design Co. of Seattle, will continue to operate as a maker of tuna fishing vessels and will maintain engineering and marketing operations in San Diego, production facilities in Taiwan and service offices in Mexico, Chile and other countries with large fishing fleets.