T he latter half of the 20th century was a time of change, upheaval and transition at Bath Iron Works, according to former CEO Bill Haggett.

“There were periods of great disappointment during that time frame, and there were great successes,” he said. Haggett shared his thoughts and a few memories from his time at BIW at a panel hosted by the Bath Historical Society at the Patten Free Library on Saturday.

Haggett was joined by four other former BIW employees: Larry Albee, Marilyn Reed, Fred Elwell and Bill Lowell. Together, the panel talked about what the shipyard was like from 1955 through 1995.

During WWII, the shipyard had “achieved miracles,” said Haggett. But after the war, BIW had to face the reality that the Navy’s demand for ships simply wasn’t the same.

“Shipbuilding had slowed down by that time — contracts were being awarded, but they were two or three ships at a time,” said Haggett. “And BIW was picking up its share of ships, but the pace was dramatically slower than it had been during the World War II period.”

Over the next half-century, BIW would respond by modernizing and upgrading facilities and equipment, transitioning leadership and reintroducing commercial work to the shipyard, according to Haggett.

“When I joined the shipyard in 1962, steam propulsion ruled the world,” said Bill Lowell, who served around 20 years as chief engineer at BIW. “Practically everything in the United States was related to steam propulsion: boilers and turbines and issues like that. And I watched the evolution — it was a little like going from sail to steam propulsion.”

By embracing new technology and commercial work, BIW was able to succeed in the post-WWII shipbuilding environment. But that alone might not have been enough if BIW hadn’t latched onto some very important Navy contracts.

“One of the great decisions we made was to tie our spirits to the DDG-7, Oliver Hazard Perry-class,” said Lowell. “And then we tied ourselves to the Arleigh Burke program, another good decision. Some of these programs that we could have tied ourselves to actually were stillborn — they never really came to fruition. So we were fortunate to pick the right program politically.”

The Bath-built USS Simpson was the last Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate to be in active service, finally being decommissioned in September 2015. BIW continues to build Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers for the Navy, and has announced its intentions to submit a bid for the next round of destroyers in early 2017.

Not all serious

Not all of the discussion at the panel was serious, however. While the changes BIW underwent during this time period were a focus, the panelists also shared a handful of memories from their time working at the shipyard. Marilyn Reed, who started working at BIW in 1960 when she was only 17 and retired in 2007, shared a few instances of mischief at the shipyard.

“About the second year after the #11 crane was installed — the orange and white one — the little clerk downstairs in maintenance climbed to the top of it without anyone in upper management knowing,” recalled Reed. “She did have safety harnesses on, and the guy that was putting the Christmas tree up there let her follow him up and attach the Christmas tree.

“Afterward, there was quite a thing about allowing somebody to go up there that wasn’t supposed to be, but she loved seeing the whole of the BIW yard and most of Bath!” said Reed.

“Well you know, you hear these stories and everyone premises their comments by saying, ‘of course upper management didn’t know it,’” added Haggett. “All that upper management ever really knows is that it doesn’t know much about what is truly going on, and that something that becomes increasingly obvious with the passage of time.”