MMA training ship to visit European ports
2/9/10 | 11 comments

MMA training ship to visit European ports


By BDN Staff
BDN Staff

CASTINE, Maine — Maine Maritime Academy students, officers and crew will visit ports in Europe this spring as part of the college’s annual two-month training cruise, according to the itinerary released Monday.

The State of Maine, the MMA training vessel, will travel to ports in Marseille, France; a bunker port call at Gibraltar; Kiel, Germany; and Portsmouth, England, before returning to the U.S. for stops in Portland and Rockland on its way back to Castine.

Under the command of Capt. Larry Wade of Bradley, the 500-foot former U.S. Navy oceanographic research vessel will depart from Castine Harbor on May 4.

The training cruise provides at-sea training time for students pursuing an officer’s license from the U.S. Coast Guard as a third mate or third assistant engineer. They are required to train at sea for at least 60 days in each of their first three years at the academy.

Freshmen and juniors sail aboard the MMA vessel, while sophomores are assigned to merchant ships worldwide. In recent years, MMA training cruises have taken students to Aruba, Bermuda, Brazil, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, and other European and Caribbean countries.

“We rotate our domestic and international itineraries to give as many students as possible an opportunity to make a trans-Atlantic crossing during their training with us,” Wade said in a prepared release. “Maine Maritime Academy graduates are responsible for much of today’s global trade transport and for many of our students, this is their first experience of what is to come in their careers. The excitement builds from the day we begin training cruise in port.”

During the cruise, students and staff will again coordinate “Follow the Voyage,” MMA’s online ship tracking and training cruise activities Web site. In addition to an interactive tracking chart of the cruise, the site provides links devoted to teaching and educational materials for students of all ages.

The students and staff also will work with Belfast-based Educational Passages to launch small, unmanned sailboats at various locations to enable the study of ocean wind and current patterns by school or community groups.

The training ship will return to its home port of Castine on June 26.

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Comments
11 comments on this item
On 2/9/10 at 7:00 AM, Native1710 wrote: Click here to view hidden comment         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
On 2/9/10 at 8:52 AM, Lyonness wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Excuse me?

The vast majority of the students at MMA are Maine students who pay tuition as well as a cruise fee that covers their expenses. If you are envisioning the students reclining on deck chairs you have really missed the boat on this one. While the students are allowed to get off the ship and look around the ports of call during the very brief stops, for the most part, this is a working, training vessel and they are expected to run the engine room, navigate and serve watch duty. The students get hands on training which is invaluable in the "real world." Maine Maritime has an extremely high success level in placing its graduates in well-paying jobs, which means they are producing new taxpayers. You will not find an MMA graduate waiting tables. When you compare MMA to the other schools in the state university system, it's a shining star and a tremendous bargain for Maine taxpayers as well as the Maine families who send our students there.

Native1710, Before you lash out on an issue, please take a couple minutes to think about your comments first.

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On 2/9/10 at 9:05 AM, amanda wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

WELL SAID LYONNESS!!!

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On 2/9/10 at 9:22 AM, MiloCrabtree wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I wonder if Native1710 is really coolfusion who regularly makes the same short-bus comments about MMA. Lyonness is spot on with her comments. MMA rocks, man.

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On 2/9/10 at 9:33 AM, SnarkyButthead wrote: Click here to view hidden comment         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
On 2/9/10 at 9:48 AM, remotecontrol wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Native 1710.... Think before you write. Many of these future mariners will be the one's that provide you with fuel for your car and oil for your home..

That is UNLESS you drive a cart pulled by a horse and heat with a wood stove.... to which the second is most likely.

I

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On 2/9/10 at 9:50 AM, user5225 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Safe travels. Have fun boys...hmm hmm and the girl or two.

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On 2/9/10 at 10:34 AM, MMAdeckie10 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Well said Lyonness! As an out-of-stater, I disagree with Native 1710's comment about using Maine's tax dollars. While I pay over 30,000 a year in tuition, I also pay a cruise fee of over 3k, and a fuel surcharge as well. The ship is not owned or operated by the state, it is owned by the Maritime Administration. The fuel costs are paid for by the students. SnarkyButthead, I would like to see the town of Castine operate without the students. We supply jobs, and keep the businesses open. We help the elderly in time of need, and are there to support the community. Without MMA, Castine would be a ghost town.

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On 2/9/10 at 11:58 AM, Lyonness wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

... and, to add to MMAdeckie10, MMA provides fire protection to Castine and, during a power outage, electricity. They may get up a bit earlier than most, but they are excellent neighbors!

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On 2/9/10 at 12:27 PM, BucksportMom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

These students pay tuition AND a fee to go on cruise. It is a huge disservice to these students to comment negatively. Besides having to pay for it, it is no small thing to go on cruise for two months devoting your life to learning 24-7. Do they also enjoy it? I hope so! Do they learn a lot? An amazing amount of learning in a brief period of time, and nothing else can prepare them for the fields they are choosing to go into. Even if they do not go into shipping postions after graduation, it is an invaluable experience to learn about other countries and cultures, as working in the U.S. becomes a more global community by the moment. Have a wonderful journey, MMA Students and Crew, come back safe! All the people that matter are supportive of what you are endeavoring.

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On 2/9/10 at 1:07 PM, TJK04T wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Wondering why my comment was removed...Anyways I'll say it again. I had a lot of fun on this vessel during the friends and family day last year when the ship was docked in Rockland harbor. I met a lot of the staff and students on the ship who were very helpful and professional. This is truly a great program and school.

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