CASTINE, Maine — Each year, freshmen students at Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) show their desire to go to sea by leaping into the harbor from the stern of the training ship State of Maine. They are led in the leap by the college president, and followed by the ship’s captain.
It’s a big drop, signifying perhaps their leap into the future. This year, the freshmen may have to jump off something else, because the current State of Maine won’t be there.
The ship has been training MMA students for the sea since 1997, and will sail off in May for a 70-day training cruise down the east coast, to the islands, and then to Europe and back.
Then she will sail away from Maine for good, as the Academy prepares to welcome a brand new ship to train the merchant marine officers of coming classes.
It will be a significant change for the school and the town of Castine, which has grown accustomed to seeing the 499-foot vessel at her dock, dominating the harbor and the waterfront landscape.
She will be replaced by a slightly longer and wider ship, now under construction at the Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania. It's one of five identical vessels being built by the U.S. Maritime Administration for the country’s five maritime training schools, at a cost of about $320 million each, according to a spokesperson for the Maritime Administration.
"It's time, she’s showing her age," Captain "Mac" MacArthur said of the current State of Maine. He noted that the vessel was originally designed as an oceanographic research ship for the Navy, then converted for training.
The new ship is specifically designed for training, with classrooms and more than twice as many berths. Perhaps more important, she will have a special training engine control room and a training bridge, separate from the spaces used to actually operate the ship. Both training spaces will be identical to the ones that run the ship.
"So basically its a place to go and mess around with the [navigation equipment], mess around with radar, see what different things do without making a problem for navigation," junior student Ahren Myers said.
"It's very busy and requires a lot of vigilance,” sophomore Odie Fields said of the working bridge on the ship.
Both students are training to be deck officers, while others are focused on engineering and actually learn to work on and repair the engines and other equipment below decks. The State of Maine has had some upgrades during her 27 years at MMA, but the new ship will have every system as up to date as possible.
Junior Duane Tibbetts said using state-of-the-art equipment and controls will help students be better prepared when they graduate.
"We are a little outdated here, but the new one will be more standard with the industry," Tibbetts said.
The new ship is scheduled to arrive in 2025, in time for that summer's training cruise. But she will also have a second mission to perform, if called upon. All five of the new vessels are designed to be deployed for disaster relief and humanitarian missions if needed. To that end, the ships have spaces for roll on/roll off containers, vehicle transport, expanded medical facilities, disaster management, and accommodations for 700.
They will continued to be owned by the Maritime Administration and could be called in for relief work at essentially a moment’s notice. MMA officials said its possible some students could be used on board as crew in those missions, but that isn’t known for certain.
However, training the academy’s cadets remains the primary job to be done, as it is now. Chief Engineer Aaron Coy, together with Capt. MacArthur, oversees both the training and the operation on board the State of Maine, and says he sees remarkable growth and progress from those students. They come in, he says, knowing little or nothing about ships and life at sea but steadily grow in knowledge, confidence, and capability until they handle most of the work that has to be done.
"That’s where you build the confidence, [it's] when we trust them enough to do the job. We are over here, they do the work, but we are still watching. And that 'aha' moment when the light bulb clicks, it makes this job so rewarding, so rewarding."
This year’s training cruise begins the first of May and ends in early July. The State of Maine will then relinquish that name, and return to the federal government’s ready-reserve fleet for other duty.
The new ship will then take on the familiar name, known all along the coast: Training Vessel State of Maine.