CASTINE — Thanks to the stroke of the Presidential pen on Friday, there will be a new, modern training ship State of Maine moored to the Maine Maritime Academy dock, but likely not anytime soon.
Last week, the U.S. Senate and House voted to approve a long-awaited Transportation and Housing appropriations bill.
Included in the legislation was $300 million for the construction and acquisition of a new training vessel for Maine Maritime Academy. The ship would replace the academy’s current training vessel State of Maine, launched for the U.S. Navy in 1989 as a fast oceanographic research vessel and acquired by MMA in 1997.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins chaired the negotiating committee that brokered the agreement between the House and the Senate for the appropriations bill. That spending bill was part of a package of legislation signed by President Donald Trump on Friday.
“This ship is a critical training asset for Maine Maritime Academy, which is why I fought to include this funding throughout the appropriations process,” Collins said in a statement released last week before the final vote.
“This appropriation demonstrates that Congress believes in the value of our state maritime academies and our role in support of economic and national security,” said William J. Brennan, president of Maine Maritime Academy, in a statement.
If all goes as planned, the new training ship will be substantially larger than the current vessel — one of a new class of National Security Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMV) purpose-built for the Federal Maritime Administration (MARAD) as maritime academy training ships, with a length of 524 feet, a beam of 88 feet 7 inches and a draft of 21 feet 4 inches.
The State of Maine has a length just 2 inches short of 500 feet and a beam of 72 feet.
The new ships can be configured with accommodations for 600 cadets plus training staff and crew of 100. Educational facilities include classroom and workshop space, laboratory and training areas and a dedicated training bridge and navigation laboratory.
According to MARAD, the new ships also will be equipped to support major federal relief efforts with medical capabilities and berthing for up to 1,000 first responders and recovery workers. The vessel’s roll-on/roll-off ramp and crane will facilitate container storage and enable it to provide critical support equipment and supplies to areas impacted by natural disasters.
The new ships are considerably more modern, and faster, than the current training vessel. State of Maine is driven by a single 8,000-horsepower diesel engine turning a reversible pitch propeller and can cruise at 16 knots.
The planned replacement vessel will have four (approximately) 3,230-horsepower (21,000 horsepower total) diesel electric engines in two separate engine rooms that can provide a top speed of 18 knots and a two-engine cruising speed of 12 knots.
To ease maneuvering in close quarters, the ships will be equipped with both an azimuthing (rotating) bow thruster and a stern thruster.
A delivery date for the new ship is certain to be far in the future. As of last week, the Federal Maritime Administration had yet to sign a contract for the construction of any of the new class of vessels.
Earlier this year, Sen. Collins opposed an administration request for $205 million to build a smaller training vessel for MMA that would have been inferior to a ship funded in the last budget cycle for Massachusetts Maritime Academy despite the fact that the two schools have nearly the same number of Coast Guard-licensed graduates and MMA has the same need for at-sea training. In addition, a design change would force MARAD to start the new ship design process from scratch.
The bill appropriating the $300 million for the new training ship also provides $5 million in direct support and tuition assistance for the Maine Maritime Academy, as well as fuel payments for the current training ship.
