Navy warship Independence rolled out at Austal

For the several hundred people who gathered Saturday to watch the roll-out of the Navy warship Independence at the Austal shipyard, it was "hurry up and wait" as they mingled and chatted before the vessel slowly began to emerge about 8:30 p.m.

The shallow-water combat ship had been scheduled to leave Austal's north shed along the Mobile River between 3 and 5 p.m., but problems aligning the dry dock to the ship shed where the Independence was housed caused complications, said Austal's Bill Pfister.

By the time of the actual roll-out pulling the boat onto a floating dry dock in preparation for today's launch most spectators who had gathered at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center had left.

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