Thousands protest shipyard's closure

KITTERY, Maine -- Even as workers and politicians rallied in the area yesterday against the recommended closure of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, officials said the facility has so much business it is hiring workers.

''Even if the base closure commission prevails, it will be years before things wind down here," said Captain William D. McDonough, a former shipyard commander who is a director of Save Our Shipyard Association, a lobby group that has been working for more than a year to keep the country's oldest continuously-operating shipyard open. ''In fact, right now they are in a hiring mode for some jobs."

Five submarines are undergoing repair work or refueling, said Gary Hildreth, a press officer for the shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Hildreth said seven other submarines are scheduled for modernization overhauls or repairs.

That will mean adding up to 100 apprentice workers, said Deborah White, public affairs officer for the shipyard.

Several thousand workers in grease-stained dungarees marched yesterday with the governors of Maine and New Hampshire and the congressional delegations of both states across the shipyard grounds, chanting, ''We're the best," to protest the recommended mothballing of the 297-acre facility.

Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, offered an official letter from Gordon England, the secretary of the Navy, which erred in reference to the facility's location.

''The secretary of the Navy addressed his letter to the Portland Naval Shipyard," Snowe said. ''If you are not familiar with the name, how can you possibly be familiar with the facts."

The rally was held to protest the Pentagon's latest plan to close 33 military installations around the country and combine and consolidate several smaller installations.

The shipyard straddles the state border and currently employs about 4,300 people. Its payroll exceeds $283 million, which has a ripple effect on the economies of Southern Maine and eastern New Hampshire, said Richard Ingram, president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

''Together we are showing a united front against the Base Realignment and Closure listing of this shipyard," Maine's governor, John Baldacci, said.

''It is a gross error in judgment."

Mark MacKenzie, the president of the AFL-CIO in New Hampshire, said: ''There are not good prospects for the economy to absorb this highly skilled workforce. If this base closed, it is going to displace all sorts of people as the effects ripple throughout the region."

Caroline Louise Cole can be reached at cole@globe.com.