To say Dakota Creek Industries’ ship has come in could be inaccurate, seeing as the Anacortes shipbuilder is building not one, but two research vessels for the U.S. Navy.

The Department of Defense announced Feb. 3 that Dakota Creek Industries had been awarded a contract modification of more than $70 million to build a second Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research Vessel, or AGOR.

“They’re exercising their option,” said Hollie Anthonysz, who coordinates projects for Dakota Creek. “We bid on the first vessel with an option for two. They had a certain amount of time to decide to exercise their option and they did.”

All the plans and models that have been developed for the first AGOR vessel will now be used to build a second ship. When completed, the vessels will be 238-feet long and will be able to support a wide variety of ocean-based research.

According to Anthonysz, construction on the first vessel is scheduled to begin in June and delivery to the Navy is expected to be in October, 2014. The second vessel will be finished within six months of the first, in April, 2015. The announcement is good news for Dakota Creek, which already employs about 250 people.

“We are very excited,” Anthonysz said. “It’s very good for the yard. We will have to ramp up (for construction), definitely when we have two boats going side by side.”

All construction will be done at the company’s shipyard in Anacortes. When completed, the first vessel will go to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass. The Navy has slated the second ship for Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego.