The final stage of construction for the U.S. Navy's Joint High Speed Vessel Trenton,the fourth ship to be named after New Jersey's capital city, started this week with a "keel-laying ceremony" at the manufacturing facility in Alabama.
"A traditional keel-laying ceremony marks the first significant milestone in the construction of the ship," according to a statement issued by Austal, the contractor building the ship.
When completed, the aluminum catamaran-hulled USNS Trenton will be 338-feet and include a 20,000-square-foot mission deck, an aviation flight deck and will have the ability to travel 1,200 nautical miles at about 35 knots.
The ship is being built in 43 modules and about half are already in the final assembly facility in Mobile, Ala.
The Trenton is the fifth of 10 JHVS ships being built for the Navy. Two have been completed and deployed while four others, including the Trenton, are in final testing or construction phases.
The Trenton was scheduled for completion later this year.
The final stage of construction began this week on the USNS Trenton with a keel laying ceremony at the construction facility in Alabama. History of previous ships named Trenton:
• The first, launched in 1876. It sailed primarily in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea and eventually wrecked in an 1889 hurricane.
• The second, a light cruiser, launched in 1923. It helped evacuate U.S. citizens from Spain during the Spanish Civil War and made some bombardments on the Pacific front of World War II.
• The third, an amphibious transport dock, was launched in 1968 and, in 2006, helped evacuate U.S. citizens from the Lebanon War. The Indian Navy purchased the ship in 2007 for $44 million and rechristened it as the INS Jalashwa.