New Cruise Ships to be Built on Eastern Shore 

By Cheryl Costello 

Have you ever noticed the smaller cruise ships that run up and down the Chesapeake? Did you know that they are built right here in the Bay region? American Cruise Lines hosts history-themed cruises like the History Triangle, visiting D.C., Mount Vernon, Cambridge, St. Michaels, Annapolis and Chestertown, along with riverboat cruises in the middle of the country and close-to-shore experiences in the Pacific Northwest. 

Those same boats that cruise the Bay are also built on the Bay, at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury. The shipbuilder just announced 12 new American Cruise Lines vessels will be built at the yard, bringing dozens of jobs with them.  

Bay Bulletin went inside to see the construction in our home state. Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corp. President Steve McGee showed us around the yard. What started in 1980 with building about one ship every two to three years—has grown. 

“Now we’re on track to deliver three cruise ships per year every year going forward,” McGee tells us. He showed us the underside of one of the new vessels, as tradesmen welded and gouged steel plates. 

They will be riverboats for American Cruise Lines, which currently operates 15 ships cruising to more than 31 states. The recently announced Project Blue ships will soon fill the production buildings in Salisbury. 

We got a close look at the welding work on the skeleton of the hull, which McGee likens to our own bones. “Think of it as the ribs in your body. Ultimately, the skin of the hull will end up getting welded to that side shelf,” he said. 

Project Blue is designed to meet the requests of the cruise line’s clientele. People have been asking for a smaller, more intimate venue. For some, the smaller number of guests feels more manageable in a pandemic than the mega-cruise ships that sail out of Baltimore and Norfolk. 

The smaller ships will carry about 110 passengers and 50 crew members. They can get into places the bigger vessels can’t access. “The Intercoastal Waterway along the Atlantic coast, for instance,” McGee says. “These boats will be stable enough to run off of New England all the way down to Florida. And we can actually put them on the West Coast.” 

The increased work will mean more job opportunities on the Eastern Shore. Chesapeake Shipbuilding is looking to roughly double its staff, especially in trades like welding, pipe fitting, and electrical work. 

We met Larry Wise, a welding foreman with more than 12 years at Chesapeake Shipbuilding. We watched him seal together two steel plates, a skill needed on every deck of the cruise ship. His work leads to someone else’s relaxing vacation. 

“Other people get the pleasure of what we’re doing for a living, just like a teacher who lives to teach kids. Same concept with us,” Wise says. The employees log eight-hour workdays outdoors through extreme weather conditions. When we visited, it was about 20 degrees.  

“A lot of these guys, at one point, were carpenters and they’ve learned how to weld and apply those carpentry skills, but they’re working in steel,” Wise says. 

And there is more work to be done. The first two Project Blue ships will be ready for delivery next year.