Maine Maritime Academy’s new federally funded training ship, State of Maine, left its Philadelphia shipyard with more than 100 problems that the Castine school is still working to have fixed, according to its captain.
The ship was delivered to the academy in March after a construction delay and presented an “immediate struggle,” Capt. Gordon MacArthur told MMA’s board of trustees last week, with numerous issues that had to be addressed immediately.
The problems, many of which are the shipyard’s responsibility under warranty, created a “heavy lift” for the student crew on the ship’s first training cruise this summer, though he said the 70-day trip went relatively well.
“That’s 100 and counting,” he said of the problems under warranty. “I mean, we’re finding stuff every day.”
The ship also came with a list of other unfinished work, and compliance requirements became the academy’s responsibility to address on a short timeline, according to MacArthur.
The ship’s arrival was a major event for MMA, which prepares students for licensing to work on commercial vessels, a profession currently facing an increasing shortage in the U.S.; twice the size of its predecessor and equipped with current technology graduates would see in the workforce, State of Maine has been hailed as significantly upgrading education offerings in Castine.
But it was not delivered in the condition it should have been and put additional demands on its crew, according to MacArthur. The company that oversaw construction and the academy’s president, meanwhile, characterized the repair needs as typical and useful for students to experience.
The fixes are not unusual for a new vessel and there are no safety concerns for people onboard, the school’s president, Craig Johnson, said in a statement after the meeting.
“Indeed, making these repairs offers our students the opportunity to experience real-world situations associated with taking delivery of a new ship, a core aspect of the Academy’s pedagogical method: learning by doing,” he said. “State of Maine is a transformational training resource that will allow the Academy to continue to provide a world-class education to its students for decades to come.”
MMA’s ship is the third of five new National Security Multi-Mission Vessels owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration and used by maritime academies as training ships. The federal government also has the ability to use them to respond to natural disasters and offer humanitarian relief.
The new State of Maine, which arrived in Castine last month, is the school’s first custom-made training ship.
It was built at Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, overseen by TOTE Services, a company that helps manage vessel construction for customers. Construction was delayed by two months late last year after issues were found in the ship’s propulsion system.
The number of warranty claims was “incredibly low” for a large, complex vessel and “extremely low” by government standards, according to Jeff Vogel, vice president of legal for TOTE. He said there were 85 warranty claims – a lower number than MacArthur gave – about two-thirds of which have been corrected.
Many of the problems stemmed from thawing after an extremely cold period at the shipyard in February, according to MacArthur, which led to issues including blown gaskets and sprung piping flanges.
The ship also can’t be used for federal disaster relief until a ramp door is repaired, work that is scheduled for October.
Annual service and compliance inspections for items like lifeboats and fire suppression systems were delayed and became the school’s responsibility instead of the shipyard’s, with a shortened timeline to complete them, according to MacArthur. He said compliance issues weren’t handled the way they should have been by the yard.
The ship is also just a large and complex piece of equipment, he said.
The academy did not provide a list of the needed repairs or costs that the Bangor Daily News requested this week.
Some problems are being fixed by the shipyard and other repairs are being made by the academy and charged to Hanwha. The U.S. Maritime Administration withholds some payment to Hanwha for that cost, but MMA isn’t reimbursed for labor, according to MacArthur.
For that reason, the crew will make fixes if necessary to operate the ship but is otherwise trying to let the shipyard address repairs, he said.
The ship should have been delivered without issues, MacArthur said in response to a trustee’s question on Aug. 6.
SUNY Maritime College’s training ship, delivered in 2023, also had warranty issues and repairs stretched into 2025, the captain added. The New York school did not respond to a request for comment.
The shipyard also did not return a request for comment. The U.S. Maritime Administration responded to an inquiry but did not provide comment by press time.
“Overall, it was a success,” MacArthur said of the summer cruise. “People got the training they needed, they got the sea days they needed, and you know, we worked through the problems because that’s what we do. We’re problem-solvers.”
