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Vocations

A Ship Inspector Who Brings a Bit of the Barre to the Bilge

Helen Gault is an apprentice weld inspector for Newport News Shipbuilding as well as a ballet dancer.Credit...Eliot Dudik for The New York Times

Helen Gault, 34, is an apprentice weld inspector for Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va.

Q. What exactly does your job involve?

A. My group inspects the integrity of the welds used in building the submarines and aircraft carriers in the shipyard and the materials used. So if a welder joins two steel plates together, as an example, I’ll look for gaps in the welding. My official title is nondestructive tester, which means I leave the welds intact when I test them, as opposed to our destructive testers, who actually blow parts up or break materials.

What is your background?

I trained intensively in ballet as a child and started dancing for the Virginia Ballet Theater at age 19. I thought I’d dance my whole career, but in case it didn’t work out I attended college part time for a biology degree. As I approached the age when most dancers retire, I wanted to do something different.

What was it like moving between the two fields?

I see similarities. Dancing actually translates well to a career in shipbuilding. They’re both hands-on and very physical and they involve watching something and trying to replicate it.

Do you miss dancing?

I do, but I try to keep my hand in. I still take classes after work. I performed in “Snow White” in a Virginia Beach theater last March, and I do a little bit of teaching. But I’ve hung up my ballet shoes in favor of steel-toed boots.

How did you find this opportunity?

My husband, a musician, got an apprenticeship as an electrician here six years ago, and he recommended the program. We live near the shipyard. Admission is very competitive, but I applied and was accepted in 2013.

What surprised you about this job?

Sometimes I have to squeeze into small, dirty areas. Recently we were checking a pipe in the bilge, the ship’s hull. I was the only one who could fit into the space. I was doing what’s called dye penetrant testing to make sure the pipe didn’t leak, and ultrasonic testing in which sound waves bounce through the metal, to check the pipe’s thickness after being bent. Another group had to test a material in the same spot, and since I was only one who could fit, they had me do it for them.

Vocations asks people about their jobs. Interview conducted and condensed by Patricia R. Olsen.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section BU, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: A Bit of the Barre in the Bilge. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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