Editor’s note: Second of three parts.

Mare Island’s history as a shipyard dates to 1854, when it became the first U.S. Naval installation on the West Coast under Commodore David Farragut’s command. For more than a century, the Navy operated the shipyard, and at one time it had more than 18,000 employees before the naval base was deactivated in 1995.

California Dry Dock Solutions, initially led by director Jay Anast, sought to reopen the dry docks and become the first West Coast company certified to recycle the obsolete ships in the Maritime Administration’s Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay.

Anast got that accomplished in 2011, with employees who formerly had worked at the base and who knew how to revive and operate the long-idle equipment, some of which could be considered antiques.

Still, the firm was outbid by Texas recyclers on all but two ships, even though the cost to move the ships to Texas added upward of $3 million to the price tag. The Mare Island operation often had to settle for being a subcontractor that scrubbed the old vessels clean and prepared them for towing to Texas.

Now, under two changes of leadership, the company has refocused its purpose as a general, all-purpose shipyard, not only preparing old Navy ships for their final trip to recyclers but refitting the Hoga, the little World War II tugboat that survived the Pearl Harbor attack, for its new home in an Arkansas museum.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson has tried to assure that the Vallejo company has been able to bid on parity with the Texas recyclers. “What we’re doing is working with MARAD and the Government Accounting Office, to make sure the standards are the same,” he said in an interview with The Herald last week.

Thompson noted that Mare Island operated with some disadvantages. Among them, ships are broken apart in dry docks, where “incidental take” laws apply — company employees have gone into the dry docks when water is removed, capturing any fish that may have been brought in when the docks were filled, then releasing them.

Texas recyclers have no such mandates to meet. They don’t use dry docks — the ships are brought up on shore.

Thompson said he has been helping in other ways to boost the clientele of the Vallejo company, which now is named Mare Island Dry Docks. Those efforts are in keeping with what the congressman called the company’s “different tack.”

He said the new approach is a sensible business decision — in part because few MARAD ships remain to be recycled, and once they are gone new business opportunities will have to be found.

He announced two such opportunities last week: a $5.1 million United States Coast Guard contract with Mare Island for the repair of the heavy icebreaker Polar Star, and a $1.9 million contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the repair of the Ronald H. Brown research vessel.

Last year, Thompson, a Napa Democrat who represents both Benicia and Vallejo in the House, hosted a summit on the economic revitalization of Mare Island. He invited leaders of both private and public sectors, including Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson.

“There’s a spillover to Benicia,” Thompson said. “That’s why your mayor was there.”

He’s had two such meetings, one to make sure Mare Island would be ready for business improvements, and the second to encourage economic development, bringing together such groups as the Vallejo City Council, the Solano County Board of Supervisors and the Vallejo Chamber of Commerce, as well as those who might offer contracts or seek to expand there.

Another important feature for reviving Mare Island is the $22 million ferry terminal to be built by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), the same agency that controls the Vallejo Baylink Ferry.

That terminal, on hold for about a decade, may open by next year. WETA will use state transportation and bridge toll funds to underwrite the terminal’s construction, including a public promenade, increased fuel storage and a maintenance area, and four ferry slips for passenger service.

Thompson suggested wind turbines and solar arrays also could be erected there. “It’s a great opportunity for renewable energy expansion, especially with the infrastructure,” he said.

He said Mare Island has “tremendous potential. The infrastructure is there. We’ve seen the benefits reaped.” Besides the dry docks, it has a rail repair shop, a structure he said couldn’t be built in Benicia, and the site has highway access.

That doesn’t mean Thompson is ignoring Benicia’s economic development.

He said he visits the city often, meeting with Economic Development Manager Mario Giuliani, who introduces him to owners and operators of local businesses and industries.

“I always visit companies here,” he said. And he’s listened to what Benicia business owners have to say.

For instance, Thompson said he visited CytoSport, a Benicia Industrial Park company founded by the Greg Pickett family that produces Muscle Milk, Cytosport Monster Series and Cytomax series of protein and nutritonal products that target athletes.

One of the company’s officers spoke to Thompson about a piece of legislation. He studied the bill, and based on her information he decided to support it. “She helped me a lot,” he said.