BATH -- News of the U.S. Navy's decision to abandon plans for a fleet of new, larger destroyers quickly spread through the Bath Iron Works shipyard and the surrounding community Wednesday, capping more than a week of rumors and speculation about the future of the work force.

Many workers considered the news a threat to local jobs, but they soon were reassured by union leaders who said the yard would stay busy building six more of the familiar, smaller Arleigh Burke destroyers.

"To be honest, I wouldn't mind building what we've got here already. Then we wouldn't miss a beat," said Tim Patterson, an employee from Woolwich.

The future of the Navy's destroyer fleet is a personal issue for the nearly 6,000 workers at the shipyard. Decisions about which ship designs to build and which shipyards will build them also can have a big impact on the community and the incomes of business surrounding the yard.

"Everyone in the city of Bath follows this," said City Manager Bill Giroux. "We're certainly concerned about it."

But, he said, "We're confident that when the Navy need ships, Bath is going to build some of them. And they're going to need ships."

Scuttlebutt about ship orders picked up last week, following the news, first reported in a Navy newsletter, that the Navy was reconsidering the future of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyer.

BIW was awarded $1.4 billion to build the first of the Zumwalt class, a ship 50 percent larger than the Arleigh Burke destroyers that the yard currently builds. An additional six ships were expected to be built by BIW and a rival shipyard in Mississippi.

Workers and city residents woke up to news reports Wednesday that the Navy would not order any more Zumwalt destroyers.

"For BIW, it's not a good thing," said John Albis of Litchfield, a maintenance worker in the yard. Albis, however, said he had not yet heard news being circulated by union leaders that improved the outlook.

Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, assured the union Wednesday morning that BIW would build six more Arleigh Burke destroyers instead of the Zumwalts, said Don Bilodeau, a trustee of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

And that, he said, is even better for workers because some of the manufacturing of the larger ships was going to be done elsewhere.

"The DDT-1000 could lead to layoffs for workers," he said. "Whereas with the DDT-51 -- we're building them now. It's going to be more steady work. ... There should be absolutely no layoffs."

The shift in plans should provide enough work through 2015, he said. Then, he said, there should be a new generation of ships to build.

The forecast of no layoffs also was a relief outside the yard's gate.

"That's my business. That's my lunch," said Dick Lessard, owner of Mario's pizza and sandwich shop in Bath.

Lessard, like others in town, knows the names of the various ship designs and gets nervous whenever there's talk of a change. "It's hard to keep up with sometimes," he said.