PORTLAND, Maine — Gordon Griffin peered through binoculars from the perch of Fort Allen Park on Thursday, looking at the angular vessel that was much different than the destroyers he served on starting in 1949.
“She’s a strange looking item, that’s for sure,” said Griffin, a Navy veteran who served 23 years on submarines, comparing the “stealth” destroyer — which will become the USS Zumwalt when the Navy officially takes possession of it next year — to earlier stealth fighter plane designs.
Shipbuilder Bath Iron Works and the Navy have not disclosed the itinerary of its DDG-1000, which is the largest Navy destroyer ever built and first in a truncated line of three new vessels designed to modernize the Navy’s maritime combat operations.
The undisclosed itinerary didn’t stop small crowds of onlookers from gathering Thursday afternoon on the Eastern Promenade and down near the Ocean Gateway terminal, where the 600-foot ship docked.
Shipyard officials said the vessel would return to Portland Harbor several times to pick up and drop off officials during its sea trials, then travel to Bath one last time before going to its homeport of San Diego next year.
Griffin said his son, the captain of the environmental cleanup vessel the Maine Responder, heard over the radio that the ship would arrive in Portland and let his father know it was headed into the harbor.
“I knew she was supposed to come in, but I didn’t know what day,” said Griffin, who came across town from his home in the North Deering neighborhood.
“It’s kind of exciting,” said Ivy Griffin, as three tugboats guided the ship toward the dock.
The ship took more than $4 billion to build and is part of the $22 billion DDG-1000 program. The super-stealth ship was designed to deflect radar and has weapons and engine systems powered by electricity.
BIW is under contract with the Navy to complete two more Zumwalt-class destroyers, the beginning and apparent end of a line that was cut back from 32 ships as costs mounted for the program.