Metal Shark Boats is an American developer and builder of aluminum-hull vessels that operates shipyards in Jeanerette and

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People and characters * Franklin (given name), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (surname), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (class), a member of a historic ...

, Louisiana. It offers a variety of vessels ranging from commercial transportation to specialized law enforcement and military applications.

History

The company was founded as Gravois Aluminum Boats in 1986, building primarily small recreational vessels. As sales declined Gravois incorporated Metal Shark in 2005 with the goal of attracting governmental and commercial clients. The company operated out of its Jeanerette facility, building boats up to in length primarily for government agencies, notably a $192 million contract for almost 500 small response boats for the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. In January 2014, Metal Shark announced that it had purchased a site in Franklin, Louisiana on the Charenton Bypass Canal and planned to establish a second shipyard there with the capacity to construct vessels up to in length. The facility opened in July 2014. In December 2014, Metal Shark reached an agreement with the

Damen Group The Damen Group is a Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering conglomerate company based in Gorinchem, Netherlands. Though it is a major international group doing business in 120 countries, it remains a private family-owned company. Dame ...

to market and build Damen-designed ships. As of 2016, Metal Shark had built about a thousand vessels for operators around the world. Metal Shark won the $54 million contract to build 13 Defiant-class patrol vessels, under the supervision of the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, intended to be given the USA's

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

neighbours. The class of vessels is based on the Damen Stan 2606 design—the same design nearby rival

Bollinger shipyards Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels. Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 t ...

used for the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, mi ...

's very successful Marine Protector class of cutters. Metal Shark manufactures a smaller class of patrol vessels, also called the ''Defiant'' class. Metal Shark delivered the first of several Defiant class vessels to

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

and

Cabo Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

in February 2018. Those vessels were gifts from the USA.

Operators

Operators of Metal Shark Boats: * ** ** ** * **

Cape Verdean Armed Forces The Cape Verdean Armed Forces (, FACV) or Cabo Verdean Armed Forces are the military of Cape Verde. They include two branches, the National Guard and the Coast Guard. History Before 1975, Cape Verde was an overseas province of Portugal, having a ...

* **

Djiboutian Navy The Djiboutian Navy (, ) is the naval service branch of the Djibouti Armed Forces. It is responsible for securing Djibouti's territorial waters and seaboard as well as supporting army operations. The primary objective of the navy is to safeguard ...

* **

Guyana Coast Guard * ** * ** Emblem of the Ukrainian Navy

Military Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ** Ukrainian Sea Guard emblem

Ukrainian Sea Guard The Ukrainian Sea Guard (, ; fully titled – , ) is the coast guard service of Ukraine, subordinated to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, State Border Guard Service. History The creation of the Sea Guard began simultaneously wi ...

* ** * **

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/milscience/sigla/Documents/Navy%20News%2017/NAVY%20NEWS%20WEEK%208-1.pdf , title = NAVY NEWS WEEK 8-1 , date = 2018-02-18 , accessdate = 2019-05-01 , publisher = Defenceweb.co.za , quote = The two 38 foot (11.5 m) Defiant class patrol boats were handed over to the Senegalese Navy during a ceremony on 8 February 2018 in Dakar, Senegal. The donation included boat repair and maintenance kits, and towing vehicles, and a two-week training session on the use and maintenance of the vessels. {{cite news , url = http://www.metalsharkboats.com/pdf/Defiant%252080-85.pdf , title = Defiant 80-85 , work = Metal Shark , accessdate = 2018-06-15 , url-status = dead , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180615083507/http://www.metalsharkboats.com/pdf/Defiant%2080-85.pdf , archive-date = 2018-06-15 {{cite news , url = http://www.metalsharkboats.com/pdf/Defiant%2080-85.pdf , title = Defiant 80-85 brochure , work = Metal Shark , accessdate = 2018-06-15 {{cite news , url = http://theind.com/article-25061-SEE-WORTHY.html , title = SEE-worthy , work =

Business News Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial act ...

, author = Walter Pierce , date = 2017-05-17 , accessdate = 2018-06-15 , quote = Privately held, Metal Shark keeps its revenue figures close to the vest. Stickles declined to say what revenue is, but certainly Metal Shark would fall within ABiz’s annual list of the Top 50 Private Companies in Acadiana. Yet the company had humble beginnings as Gravois Aluminum Boats in the mid 1980s. {{cite news , url = https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps-news/us-plans-latin-american-patrol-vessel/ , title = Damen, Metal Shark partner for NCPVs , work =

Maritime Security Maritime security is an umbrella term informed to classify issues in the Maritime transport, maritime domain that are often related to national security, marine environment, economic development, and human security. This includes the world's ocea ...

, date = 2017-07-14 , accessdate = 2018-07-07 , quote = Under the terms of the FMS, Metal Shark is building up to 13,85ft Defiant class welded aluminium cutters for the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and other US partner nations. {{cite news , url = https://chuckhillscgblog.net/2017/06/23/metal-shark-builds-wpbs-for-fms/ , title = Metal Shark Builds WPBs for FMS , work =

Chuck Hill's blog Chuck () is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV produce ...

, author = Chuck Hill , author-link = , date = 2018-06-23 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20180404073312/https://chuckhillscgblog.net/2017/06/23/metal-shark-builds-wpbs-for-fms/ , archivedate = 2018-04-04 , accessdate = 2018-04-03 , url-status = live , quote = The Metal Shark boats are a version of Damen’s Stan Patrol 2606 design, so nominally 26 meters long and 6 meters of beam, but according to the Website, 87′ length overall with a beam of 19’6″. The Marine Protector Class were also a Damen 2600 series design, so the two classes share a great deal of DNA. Manufacturing companies based in Louisiana American boat builders Jeanerette, Louisiana Franklin, Louisiana

History

Operators

See also

References