The Naval Ship Systems Command has awarded Uniflite, Inc. a $118,132 contract for the manufacture of four 30-foot hawser handling boats.

Previous to this contract, Uniflite had built 24 similar boats for the Navy.

The hawser handling boat is used as a tender for submarine rescue ships. It can be either moored over a sunken craft, or serve as a shore boat.

Uniflite, Inc. of Bellingham, Wash., builds a line of 23- to 48-foot fiberglass pleasure cruisers and is a major supplier of fiberglass marine craft to the U.S. Government. The firm gained recent fame for the manufacture of more than 200 U.S. Navy river patrol boats now fighting in Vietnam, manufactured from a hull identical to their 31-foot pleasure cruiser.