Maine Maritime Academy’s 525-foot, $330 million new training ship — named the State of Maine — arrived in Castine on Sunday after years of anticipation to a crowd of hundreds along the town’s waterfront.
It can train 600 students at a time, more than double its predecessor, and features new digital technology graduates will see when they go to work on ships.
Its arrival in Castine marks the approaching end of more than a decade of planning, millions of federal dollars, a construction delay and last-minute logistical feats — and the school still plans for more projects ahead.
The new vessel comes at a time when the country faces an increasing shortage of merchant mariners; the State of Maine represents enormous federal investment in the school, which is one of the country’s six maritime academies, and the school’s first ship built specifically for training.
On the heels of its arrival, the academy is starting to fundraise for a comprehensive campaign to fund more upgrades across the Castine campus.
“Nobody’s ever put that kind of money into the U.S. merchant marine, which is, you know, sadly long overdue,” President Craig Johnson said of federal funding for five new training ships to be used by the country’s maritime academies. “The merchant marine is often overlooked, but without the U.S. merchant marine, nothing works. You know, 85 or 90% of the world’s cargo moves over ships.”
Hundreds of students from Maine Maritime and Texas A&M were on board Monday in the final days of the school’s annual summer training cruise, which this year brought them from Portland south across the Gulf Coast, up to Newfoundland, back south again to Florida and then up the East Coast before arriving in Castine.
On the main navigational bridge, cadet master Bethany Ives said that many elements of the new ship resemble what she saw last summer working on a vessel transporting heavy equipment across the Atlantic Ocean.
Students are still settling in on the maze-like ship, which is about the height of a 10-story building, and there are some hiccups to be worked through, she said; some love it and others aren’t so fond.
But it’s bigger, cleaner, more modern and has been a good experience overall, according to the senior from Hallowell, who studies in the school’s transportation operations program.
“It’s been fun to help kind of create the future,” Ives said.
The academy also is working to boost flagging graduation rates, which dropped to 34% within four years for students who were freshmen in 2019, lower than most other Maine colleges. At a board of trustees meeting earlier this year, some school officials described it as potentially long-lasting fallout from the pandemic’s disruption of education.
But retention has historically been higher for students in the academy’s regiment and more advanced licensing program, according to Johnson, who wants rates to reach 80%. The school has also hired a new student success manager, added summer programming, and is working to catch and address student challenges, he said.
When students do graduate, the mariner shortage means they typically have several immediate job offers paying $120,000 to $140,000, according to Johnson, a “life-changing” amount for the academy’s many first-generation college students.
A shortage of trained mariners — both inland and at sea — that has worried the industry for years is widening as commercial shipping and federal defense needs for mariners both increase, he said.
The ship is the third of five new specifically built training vessels commissioned by the U.S. Maritime Administration and federally funded.
The new ship has two bridges and two engine rooms, meaning more students can get hands-on training. Training spaces are three times larger, according to Johnson, and navigation and engineering labs have more space. The ship can also double as a humanitarian vessel for federal aid efforts.
It replaces a former Navy research vessel by the same name that the academy had used since 1997.
Construction of the $105 million new pier being built to accommodate it — which is reshaping Castine’s waterfront and is the school’s largest ever construction project ever — is expected to continue for about 9 more months as work continues to connect it to land, Johnson said. The school built it starting in the water to avoid disrupting other student vessel training programs.
To “match” the new pier, the school has launched the quiet phase of a comprehensive campaign to fund upgrades to buildings – some of which date to the Revolutionary War — and additional waterfront work. A $40 million renovation of its main dormitory should be done next summer.
Johnson’s priorities include upgrades to its innovation labs and the possibility of space for visiting vessels that can be shared with the town, which surrounds both the academy and its waterfront. Parts of its simulation labs have also been upgraded with congressionally directed spending.
“It’s a great time to be a student here, but it’s an even better time to be an incoming student,” he said. “What’s going to happen here over the next five to 10 years is just going to be fantastic for the student.”
