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Maritime Careers
To people in entire regions of the United States, to choose a maritime career is a leap of faith, an act of will or imagination. A maritime career appears a logical, even obvious, possibility in Maine, or San Diego, New Orleans, or Galveston…. probably anywhere in Florida or along the Gulf Coast, the Eastern Shore or North Carolina, even in parts of the Great Lakes Region, one can see where the idea might have come from … In entire other states, not so much
Yet the possibility of a career in the U.S. maritime industry is actually a rich, vibrant, idea full of layers and potential, actually steeped in history, and protected by law
The law is the Jones Act of 1920. Its most important takeaway and enduring effect, one hundred years later, is its requirement that any vessel transporting goods or passengers between two points in the United States or engaging in certain activities in U.S. waters must be U.S. built, U.S. owned, and U.S. crewed
Protectionist legislation, granted, and without question it increases the costs of shipping goods between two U.S. ports --- the most-often cited example being Puerto Rico, but affecting Alaska and Hawaii as well, one Puerto Rico-sponsored report suggesting shipping from U.S. ports is more than 150% more expensive than shipping from non-U.S. ports. But the net effect of the Jones Act has been nearly a century of sheltered growth producing a strong domestic U.S. maritime industry, with jobs and money-making at every port of call
Sponsoring the Jones Act [sometimes called the Merchant Marine Act] was U.S. Senator from Washington State Wesley Jones (R), who proposed the law not ten years after the devastation of World War I in order to stimulate the substantial maritime industry in his state by legislating a monopoly on shipping to Alaska
The American Maritime Partnership (AMP) https://www.americanmaritimepartnership.com/ speaks for the interests of America’s domestic maritime industry, representing vessel owners and operators, shipboard and shoreside workers, shipbuilders and repair yards, equipment manufacturers and vendors, dredging and marine construction contractors, maritime trade associations and national security organizations
The U.S. maritime workforce is incredibly diverse, including workers in fisheries and aquaculture; docks, harbors, and ports; shipbuilding; marine constructing and maintenance; marine science and marine biology; and marine technology, engineering, mathematics, law, and policy
The Partnership’s Board of Directors has members from diverse organizations like The American Waterways Operators, American Petroleum Tankers, Dredging Contractors of America, Gunderson Marine, Pasha Hawaii, the Shipbuilders Council of America, the Lake Carriers Association, and SEACOR Holdings Inc.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration
https://www.maritime.dot.gov/outreach/maritime-transportation-system-mts/maritime-transportation-system-mts is the federal regulator for the domestic maritime industry, referring to the industry as the Marine Transportation System (MTS)
The system is critical to national, homeland, and U.S. economic security: by Department of Transportation statistics, 99 percent of overseas trade enters or leaves the U.S. by ship
The United States Marine Transportation system includes all of America’s waterways, seaside, inland, and Great Lakes ports and harbors, and all land-side connections to marine transport: 25,000 miles of navigable waterways and channels; 250 locks and dams 190+ locations; over 350 ports at 3500 marine terminals; shipyards and vessel repair facilities; all the thousands of recreational marinas in the country, including on the inland rivers; and the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway
The U.S. maritime industry builds 40,000 American vessels in American shipyards and directly supports 650,000 generally family-waged jobs, unionized, with retirement packages and healthcare benefits totally $41 billion in labor costs --- salaries, wages, and benefits --- sustaining indirectly an estimated 10 million more jobs. The industry booms thanks to Jones Act protections, contributing well over $300 billion to the gross domestic product and $200+ billion in annual port sector federal, state, and local taxes
Maritime transportation is only one part of the hemispheric transportation grid, maritime transportation connecting to 174,000 miles of rail in the lower 48, Canada, and Mexico [in 2020, Alaska still remains unconnected by rail to Canada or the continental U.S.]; 45,000 miles of interstate highway, 115,000 miles of supporting roadways, and 1400 designated intermodal connections --- a transportation hub where goods off-load one transportation system, and finish their journey on another mode of transportation
Professional Mariner, Journal of the Maritime Industry www.professionalmariner.com is a digital platform for all news and issues in the maritime industry. In the first week of Dec. they were reporting 1900 containers falling off a Japanese-flagged ship bound from Yantian, China, to Long Beach, 40 of them containing dangerous cargo; a Coast Guard search for a person in the water off Sabine Pass, Texas, reported missing from a tanker; and criminal charges against the captain in the Conception dive-boat fire that killed 34 off Santa Barbara in 2019
Ports, Waterways and the U.S. Marine Transportation System [.pdf by NOAA’s Navigation Services] https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/hsrp/docs/HSRP%20Educational%20Brochure.pdf
Ports and Maritime Transportation Sector Information, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
https://www.epa.gov/smartsectors/ports-and-maritime-transportation-sector-information
MarineLink: Marine Transportation Industry News
https://www.marinelink.com/news/maritime/marine-transportation-industry
Ocean and Coastal Transportation in the US: Industry trends (2015-2020)…Average industry growth 2015–2020: -6.6% https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/ocean-coastal-transportation-industry/
Maritime Trade and Transportation by the Numbers, U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics
https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/by_the_numbers/maritime_trade_and_transportation/index
U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration Maritime Security Program https://www.maritime.dot.gov/national-security/strategic-sealift/maritime-security-program-msp
The Maritime Security Program maintains a fleet of commercially viable, militarily useful, privately owned, merchant ships active in international trade. The MSP fleet is available to support U.S. Department of Defense sustainment sealift requirements during times of conflict or national emergencies, and to maintain a United States presence in international commercial shipping. The program provides DoD access to MSP participants’ global intermodal transportation network of terminals, facilities, logistic management services, and U.S. citizen merchant mariners.
Established by the Clinton administration as part of the Maritime Security Act of 1996. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 (S. 1790) authorized extensions of existing operating agreements through September 30, 2035. Vessels (60) participate under a set number of operating agreements and receive a retainer incentive in exchange. Maritime Security Program vessels must be U.S.-registered and must make their ships and commercial transportation resources available upon request by the Secretary of Defense
Maritime-industry companies participating in the Maritime Security Program:
- American International Shipping, LLC
- APL Marine Services Ltd.
- Argent Marine Operations, Inc.
- Central Gulf Lines, Inc.
- Farrell Lines Inc.
- Fidelio Limited Partnership
- Hapag-Lloyd USA, LLC
- Liberty Global Logistics, LLC
- Maersk Line, Limited
- Mykonas Tanker LLC
- Patriot Shipping LLC
- Santorini Tanker LLC
- Waterman Steamship Corporation
www.transportationinstitute.org/
The Transportation Institute is a maritime-industry watch-dog with a powerful industry lobbying presence in Washington. The Institute mission is to monitor the workings and decisions of the US Congress and federal agencies as they affect waterborne transportation, and to liaison with all congressional offices and federal agencies when maritime issues come up
This is a summary of the Transportation Institute analysis under its heading Know Our Industry https://transportationinstitute.org/know-our-industry/
[The Institute has other tabs Environmental Values https://transportationinstitute.org/know-our-industry/environmental-values/ and Maritime History https://transportationinstitute.org/know-our-industry/maritime-history/]
The world’s largest trading nation, the United States exports and imports about one-fourth of global merchandise trade in value annually. The largest part of this (international) merchandise – 1.3+ billion metric tons of cargo – moves by water. Another billion tons of cargo moves in domestic water, serving over 90 percent of the population. Current projections (to 2020) suggest U.S. foreign trade in goods may grow four times, double in current tonnage, and increase inland waterways traffic by one-third
Since the end of World War II, the U.S.-flag vessel fleet has been in a continual state of decline (as have other traditional maritime powers)
Yet, even though the size of the U.S.-flag fleet has declined in recent years, the productivity of the fleet has improved substantially
As of January 2016, the U.S. ranked 27th in number of oceangoing vessels and 25th in gross tonnage compared to other merchant fleets by owner/country. The U.S. fleet’s share of oceanborne commercial foreign trade, by weight, continues under five percent
The rise of foreign-flag carriers, building an international maritime presence to project visibility and earn hard currency, but not necessarily requiring the same level of protection for seafarer welfare and safety, is of major concern to the U.S. maritime industry. Often, foreign-flag vessel owners do not pay any corporate income taxes on revenues earned in U.S. foreign commerce, and crews frequently do not pay income taxes anywhere. U.S.-flag vessels are subject to all U.S. taxes and regulations
Despite the protections of the Jones Act, changes in maritime technology and reductions in crew sizes have contracted the industry’s supply of vessels and crew
The Maritime Security Act of 1996 established the Maritime Security Program to support a fleet of militarily useful U.S.-flag commercial vessels and American-citizen crews necessary for the military and economic security of the Nation
To learn about the U.S. maritime industry and its struggle to break free of dependence on foreign shipbuilding before the protections of the Jones Act, read here about the Ghost Ships of the Potomac’s Mallows Bay https://www.maritime.dot.gov/history/vessels-maritime-administration/ships-mallows-bay, the wreckage of 80 wooden steamships remaining out of 300 commissioned in the last days of World War I for the U.S. war effort. Soon rendered obsolete by the eventually-available steel steamships, and stranded and unsaleable by the Great Depression, the ships were beached, sunk, and left --- along with eighteenth-century schooners, a Confederate blockade runner, a Revolutionary War-era longboat, barges, and a car ferry abandoned there in the 1970s --- only to become an integral and beneficial element of the local ecosystem. Mallows Bay is now an official National Treasure, by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and a national marine sanctuary www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov/mallows-potomac/
Maritime Career Resources
The U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] says this on its website:
Paths to a Maritime Career
There are many paths to becoming a mariner. For some, it begins at the MARAD-run United States Merchant Marine Academy https://www.usmma.edu/ United States Merchant Marine Academy, one of the service academies. For those currently serving in the military, the Military to Mariner (M2M) program https://maritime.dot.gov/outreach/military-mariner is valuable. The maritime trade unions sponsor schools dedicated to maritime studies and many two-year community colleges offer maritime certificate programs
Read here for the MARAD link to a website discussing the U.S. military service academies https://www.todaysmilitary.com/education-training/military-schools?source-id=Service_Academies&content-id=+military_+service_+academies&medium-id=BMM&campaign-id=G_Military_Training_Programs_BMM&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8af7l4zQ4AIVy5yzCh1Xjw6zEAAYASAAEgKGOPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Read here for the MARAD-link to K-12 mariner programs https://maritime.dot.gov/education/k-12/kindergarten-twelve
Military to Maritime
https://militarytomaritime.org/
Website clearinghouse connecting America’s veterans with family-waged jobs in the maritime industry. Offers a job board, resources for military hoping to transition to maritime careers, links to career resources, and plenty of context about the U.S. maritime industry, or a career as a merchant mariner. Includes links to Army, Navy, and Coast Guard COOL (Credentialling Opportunities On Line), www.va.gov, and others, among them The Ship Operations Cooperative Program Inc., a one-stop website clearinghouse for all things maritime industry www.socp.us/index.html
The NOAA National Sea Grant College Program www.seagrant.noaa.gov is a national network of 34 university-based programs and the National Sea Grant Library. The Sea Grant’s mission is to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal, marine, and Great Lakes resources to create a sustainable economy and environment
The Sea Grant program is an extraordinary resource for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, healthy coastal ecosystems, and environmental literacy and workforce development
The New Hampshire Sea Grant operates this website devoted to maritime careers https://www.marinecareers.net/resources. Specific pages are allotted to marine biology, oceanography, ocean engineering, and social and policy science. This page is devoted to marine science-related jobs https://www.marinecareers.net/jobs
Among them:
American Fisheries Society job listings and employment opportunities:
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO):
http://aslo.org/employment.html
Association of Zoos and Aquariums jobs and internships:
http://www.aza.org/joblistings/
Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence
http://oceancareers.com/2.0/jobs_and_internships.php
the Conservation Job Board contains job listings related to fisheries, marine biology, wetlands, and more:
http://conservationjobboard.com/
gCaptain maritime and offshore jobs [these appear to be everything from shipboard captain and crew to university academic faculty at the maritime academies]
http://jobsite.gcaptain.com/home
EarthWorks' listing of jobs in oceanography, paleoceanography, marine science, coastal science, and limnology:
http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/oceanogr.htm
Environmental Protection Agency jobs, internships and fellowships:
National Park Service job, internship and volunteer information:
http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/workwithus.htm
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Career Center links science education professionals seeking positions and educational institutions with vacancies:
National Wildlife Federation career, internship, fellowship and volunteer opportunities:
http://www.nwf.org/Home/How-to-Help/Jobs-at-NWF.aspx
Society of Environmental Journalists links to job openings in journalism:
http://www.sej.org/library/jobs/overview
World Aquaculture Society employment service:
https://www.was.org/wases/default.aspx
BiologyJobs.com for job listings in marine science, marine biology, other life sciences:
Environmental Careers Organization (ECO) jobs and internships, U.S. and abroad:
http://www.eco.org/cm/candidate/search_jobs
And, links to marine-related jobs and internships compiled by Texas A&M:
http://www.tamug.edu/marb/Links-Marine%20Biology.html
As the New Hampshire Sea Grant website suggests, job setting for work is everything: government, private industry, academics (schools, colleges, universities), business, or non-profit organizations. Being a ship captain may be the job but what actually occurs day-to-day depends: a ship captain could work for the federal government commanding a U.S. Navy ship; for a private oceanographic research institution commanding a research vessel; or for a museum or aquarium commanding a tour boat
The Marine Conservation Institute for marine conservation education and jobs
https://marine-conservation.org/career-resources/#
Including these:
Open Channels, the community hub for sustainable ocean management and conservation: https://www.openchannels.org/
Seven Seas Ocean Jobs website, self-described as the largest and most active ocean conservation jobs list anywhere on the internet: https://sevenseasmedia.org/ocean-jobs/
Texas A&M Wildlife Job Board, a U.S. and international wildlife and fisheries jobs list, sponsored by its Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Job Board
International Maritime Career Websites (buyer beware)
Maritime-Connector.com
Since 2011, interactive job board for seafarers, maritime employers, centers for maritime education, maritime universities and other institutions. Registrations, all services, and information access for seafarers are completely free. Headquartered in Croatia www.maritime-connector.com/
TradeWinds Jobs
Offices and contacts in London, Bergen, Oslo, Athens, the U.S., Singapore, and China
SeaJobHunt.com
7Oceans [‘the biggest maritime job portal in Europe’]
Federal Marine Career Resources
The Federal Maritime Commission
NAVFAC Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command
1322 Patterson Avenue SE Suite 1000
Washington Navy Yard DC 20374-5065
the U.S. Navy Marine Resource Assessment
The U.S. Navy is responsible for compliance with a suite of federal environmental and natural resources laws and regulations that apply to the marine environment, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Executive Order 13089 on Coral Reef Protection, and Executive Order 12114 on extension of NEPA principles to international environments https://www.navfac.navy.mil/products_and_services/ev/products_and_services/marine_resources/marine_resource_assessments.html
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA Fisheries division
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Marine Areas, Islands, and Coasts
https://www.fws.gov/refuges/about/public-lands-waters/marine-coasts-islands/
CareerExploration.com
Maritime Careers
Maritime Degree Programs
The U.S. has three military (Department of Defense) service academies, one of them maritime --- the U.S. Naval Academy --- where in addition to being academically qualified, an applicant must be nominated for appointment by one’s local Congressman or United States senator, the Vice-President, or only in the situation of an applicant with an individual military-service connection, the President of the United States. A certain number of nominations are set aside for Cabinet service secretaries for enlisted personnel; and a certain number for the academy superintendents, including for the purpose of filling the class. Allocations for nomination by Members of Congress of prospective candidates are set by statute and are substantially similar for all three military academies
The military service academies
the U.S. Naval Academy
As the undergraduate college of the United States naval service for 175 years, the U.S. Naval Academy prepares young men and women to become professional officers of competence, character, and compassion in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
Naval Academy students are midshipmen on active duty in the U.S. Navy
They attend the academy for four years, graduating with bachelor of science degrees and commissions as ensigns in the Navy or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. Naval Academy graduates serve at least five years in the Navy or Marine Corps
Mission Statement of the U.S. Naval Academy
To develop midshipmen morally, mentally, and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship, and government
The Honor Concept of the U.S. Naval Academy:
Midshipmen do not lie, do not cheat, and they do not steal
Here, you are one in the Brigade
All Naval Academy students, men and women, are midshipmen. The student body is the Brigade of Midshipmen, or simply ‘the Brigade,’ and the naval service is ‘the Fleet.’ The Brigade is divided into six battalions. Five companies make up each battalion, making a total of 30 companies, 150 persons per company. The 30 companies are the most important unit of the 4,400-member Brigade of Midshipmen
The 150 members of the company eat, sleep, study, drill, play, and compete together, modelling the small-unit cohesion, teamwork, and morale of the peacetime or combat Navy and Marine Corps
All midshipmen live in the Bancroft Hall dormitory. Each semester the 30 companies compete for the title Color Company, the best in the Brigade, through academic, professional, and intramural excellence. The two companies with the most points are recognized at the Color Parade during Commissioning Week and then enjoy special privileges for the next year, including representing the Naval Academy at official functions such as presidential inaugurations. The midshipman command structure is headed by a first-class midshipman, chosen for outstanding leadership performance to be Brigade Commander. He or she is responsible for much of the Brigade’s day-to-day activities as well as the professional training of other midshipmen
Sydney Barber, of Lake Forest, Illinois, in 2020 became the first black female Brigade commander and the sixteenth woman in the 44 years women have been attending the Naval Academy. Women comprise about twenty percent of entering plebes
The Honor Concept of the Brigade of Midshipmen was established by midshipmen as a minimum standard of behavior, personal integrity, and honor that other midshipmen expect fellow midshipmen to uphold
The Honor Concept precedes a living document known as the Honor Treatise of the Brigade of Midshipmen a positive and uplifting statement directly from the midshipmen expressing who they are and what they are striving to achieve
Honor, integrity, and loyalty to the service, its customs, and its traditions are fundamental and foundational to the ideals of the U.S. Naval Academy. Lying, cheating, and stealing are intolerable in the Brigade as in the Fleet, and may be cause for separation from the Naval Academy
History of the U.S. Naval Academy
Rock-hard confidence in the loyalty and integrity of your shipmates is a hard-won value in the United States Navy. Born during the American Revolution when confronted with the Royal Navy, the Continental Navy was demobilized in 1785 by a Congress looking to save some money. In 1794, then-President George Washington persuaded Congress to authorize a new navy, because now there were pirates, the wooden-hulled three-masted United States, Constellation, Constitution, and three others launching in 1797. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams asked Congress to establish a Naval Academy
By not for twenty-five year did they act. On September 13, 1842, the American Brig Somers, a school ship intended to train and inspire volunteer apprentice teenage boys to a naval career, set sail from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Things went bad fast
It was determined by a court of inquiry aboard ship that Midshipman Philip Spencer (son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer and a founding member of Chi Psi fraternity at Union College) and what was determined to be his alleged two chief confederates, Boatswains Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small, were guilty of a "determined attempt to commit a mutiny," a plan by twenty of the apprentice sailors, led by Spencer, to take the ship by murdering the rest of the crew and use it for piracy off the Isle of Pines, near Cuba. Spencer’s defense was that he had only been playing at piracy and that the writings in Greek were an attempt to create a naval fraternity, but he was put into irons on the deck of the Somers on Nov. 26, joined within a day by Cromwell and Small and by Nov. 30 four others. The captain convened a panel of four wardroom officers and the three oldest apprentices who by the next day concluded Spencer, Cromwell, and Small were guilty of mutiny. The three were hanged at the yardarm Dec. 1 and buried at sea
Two weeks later the Somers was back in New York and 1840s America was shocked and outraged. A relative of Herman Melville, among the officers in the wardroom, repeats the tale to Melville, and the story becomes his Billy Budd, although with a very different Philip Spencer
Through efforts of the Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the Naval School was established without Congressional funding, at a 10-acre Army post named Fort Severn in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 10, 1845, with a class of 50 midshipmen and seven professors. The curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French
In 1850 the Naval School became the United States Naval Academy. A new curriculum went into effect requiring midshipmen to study at the Academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer, the basis for the far more advanced and sophisticated curriculum at the Naval Academy today. Congress authorized the Naval Academy to award bachelor of science degrees in 1933. The Academy later replaced a fixed curriculum taken by all midshipmen with the present core curriculum plus 18 major fields of study, a wide variety of elective courses and advanced study and research opportunities. The 10-acre campus grew to 338
At the U.S. Naval Academy there are simply the facts, including this impressive array:
https://www.usna.edu/About/fact-citations.php
2nd Ranked Top Public School (2018)
1st Ranked Top Public School (2019-2020)
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/top-public
2nd Ranked Highest-Earning Graduates (2016-17)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinesimon/2017/08/02/25-top-public-colleges-with-the-highest-earning-graduates/#1500c90b23e0
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larafishbane/2016/07/06/the-top-college-graduates-who-earn-the-most/2/#1f990d602df9
5th Ranked STEM College (2018)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2018/08/20/top-25-stem-colleges-2018/#1458cc741f8b
4th Ranked Undergraduate Engineering Program at schools where doctorate not offered (2019)
5th Ranked Undergraduate Engineering Program at schools where doctorate not offered (2016-2018)
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/united-states-naval-academy-2101/overall-rankings
90% Graduation Rate
USNA Institutional Research records, retrieved January 2020
8:1 Student-Faculty Ratio
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/united-states-naval-academy-2101/academics
26 Majors
https://www.usna.edu/Academics/Majors-and-Courses/index.php
33 Varsity Sports
http://www.navysports.com/ot/what-is-naaa.htm
Admission
One must first be eligible for admission --- https://www.usna.edu/Admissions/Apply/index.php#fndtn-panel7-Steps-for
- A United States Citizen by 1 July of the year of entry
- At least 17 years of age and not yet age 23 on 1 July on the year of entry
- Unmarried
- Not pregnant and no dependents
- Have a valid Social Security Number
The website lays out nine steps to the U.S. Naval Academy admissions process. Begin the process at the end of sophomore high school year
- Confirm eligibility
- Preliminary application
- Apply for nomination
- Take college entrance examinations
- Submit transcripts
- Pass the required medical examination
- Pass the required Candidate Fitness Assessment https://www.usna.edu/Admissions/Candidate-Fitness-Assessment.php
- Interview
- Finish the admission selection process and meet all deadlines
U.S. Naval Academy
121 Blake Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402
the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
31 Michigan Avenue
New London Connecticut 06320
Admissions 800-833-USCG
Founding father Alexander Hamilton, as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in 1790, proposed the formation of what he called the Revenue-Marine, a seagoing military service that would enforce customs and navigation laws, collect tariffs, hail in-bound ships, make inspections, and certify manifests. It is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States
Today’s United States Coast Guard, more than two hundred years later, has this Mission:
To graduate young men and women with sound bodies, stout hearts and alert minds, with a liking for the sea and its lore, with that high sense of honor, loyalty and obedience which goes with trained initiative and leadership; well-grounded in seamanship, the sciences and amenities, and strong in the resolve to be worthy of the traditions of commissioned officers in the United States Coast Guard in the service of their country and humanity
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services
The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the U.S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission with jurisdiction in both domestic and international waters and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its duties. It operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, and can be transferred to the U.S. Department of the Navy under the Department of Defense by the U.S. President at any time, or by the U.S. Congress during times of war
The U.S. Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, further subdivided into eleven statutory missions. The three roles are:
The Coast Guard has a decentralized organization and places much responsibility placed on even the most junior personnel, yet has capably responded quickly and ably in a broad range of emergencies
The Coast Guard has most recently been praised for its actions during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. One article cites a Guardsman with both Navy and Coast Guard experience, saying this: In the Navy, it was all about the mission. Practicing for war, training for war. In the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself
The eleven statutory missions of the Coast Guard as defined by law are divided into homeland security missions and non-homeland security missions:
Non-homeland security missions
- Ice operations, including the International Ice Patrol
- Living marine resources (fisheries law enforcement)
- Marine environmental protection
- Marine safety
- Aids to navigation
- Search and rescue
Homeland security missions
- Defense readiness
- Maritime law enforcement
- Migrant interdiction
- Ports, waterways and coastal security (PWCS)
- Drug interdiction
Search and rescue
Not the oldest search and rescue organization in the world, the U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue (CG-SAR) is one of the best known. The National Search and Rescue Plan designates the Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for maritime SAR operations, and the United States Air Force as the federal agency responsible for inland SAR. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers, and both have military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators. Previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia
National Response Center
Operated by the Coast Guard, the National Response Center (NRC) is the sole U.S. Government point of contact for reporting all oil, chemical, radiological, biological, and etiological spills and discharges into the environment, anywhere in the United States and its territories
In addition to gathering and distributing spill/incident information for Federal On Scene Coordinators and serving as the communications and operations center for the National Response Team, the NRC maintains agreements with a variety of federal entities to make additional notifications regarding incidents meeting established trigger criteria. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports
Some of the activities of the National Response Center are governed by the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan
The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution and safety incidents in the nation's ports
National Maritime Center
The National Maritime Center (NMC) is the merchant mariner credentialing authority for the USCG under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. To ensure a safe, secure, and environmentally sound marine transportation system, the mission of the NMC is to issue credentials to fully qualified mariners in the United States maritime jurisdiction
Authority as an armed service
Title 10 of the U.S. Code defines the six uniformed services that make up the U.S. Armed Forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard is further defined by Title 14 of the United States Code: The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times. The Coast Guard shall be a service in the Department of Homeland Security, except when operating as a service in the Navy
Coast Guard organization and operation is as set forth in Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations
On 25 November 2002, the Homeland Security Act was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush, designating the Coast Guard to be placed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The transfer of administrative control from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was completed the following year, on 1 March 2003
The U.S. Coast Guard reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. However, under 14 U.S.C. § 3 as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress so directs in the declaration, or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates under the Department of Defense as a service in the Department of the Navy
As members of the military, Coast Guardsmen on active and reserve service are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and receive the same pay and allowances as members of the same pay grades in the other uniformed services
The service has participated in every major U.S. conflict from 1790 through today, including landing troops on D-Day and on the Pacific Islands in World War II, in extensive patrols and shore bombardment during the Vietnam War, and multiple roles in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maritime interception operations, coastal security, transportation security, and law enforcement detachments have been its major roles in recent conflicts in Iraq
Seapower Symposium
On 17 October 2007 at the U.S. Naval War College, the Coast Guard joined with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps to adopt a new maritime strategy called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower that raised the notion of prevention of war to the same philosophical level as the conduct of war
This new strategy charted a course for the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps to work collectively with each other and international partners to prevent regional crises, man-made or natural, from occurring, or reacting quickly should one occur to avoid negative impacts to the United States. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen said at the time the new maritime strategy reinforces the time-honored missions of the service: It reinforces the Coast Guard maritime strategy of safety, security and stewardship, and it reflects not only the global reach of our maritime services but the need to integrate and synchronize and act with our coalition and international partners to not only win wars ... but to prevent wars
Authority as a law enforcement agency
Title 14 USC, section 2 authorizes the Coast Guard to enforce U.S. federal laws. This authority is further defined in 14 U.S.C. § 522, which gives law enforcement powers to all Coast Guard commissioned officers, warrant officers, and petty officers. Unlike the other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, prevented from acting in a law enforcement capacity by 18 U.S.C. § 1385, the Posse Comitatus Act, and Department of Defense policy, the Coast Guard is exempt from and not subject to Posse Comitatus Act limits
Coast Guardsmen have the legal authority to carry their service-issued firearms on and off base. This is rarely done in practice. At many Coast Guard stations, commanders prefer to have service-issued weapons in armories when not in use. Still, one court has held [People v. Booth] that Coast Guard boarding officers are qualified law enforcement officers authorized to carry personal firearms off-duty for self-defense
Further law enforcement authority is given by 14 U.S.C. § 703 and 19 U.S.C. § 1401, which empower U.S. Coast Guard active and reserve commissioned officers, warrant officers, and petty officers as federal customs officers. This places them under 19 U.S.C. §1589a, which grants customs officers general federal law enforcement authority, including the authority to:(1) carry a firearm; (2) execute and serve any order, warrant, subpoena, summons, or other process issued under the authority of the United States; (3) make an arrest without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the officer's presence or for a felony, cognizable under the laws of the U.S. committed outside the officer's presence if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing a felony; and (4) perform any other law enforcement duty the Secretary of Homeland Security may designate
— 19 USC §1589a. Enforcement authority of customs officers: The U.S. Government Accountability Office Report to the House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary on its 2006 Survey of Federal Civilian Law Enforcement Functions and Authorities, identified the Coast Guard as one of 104 federal components employing law enforcement officers. The report includes a summary of the authorities of the Coast Guard's 192 special agents and 3,780 maritime law enforcement boarding officers
The Coast Guard website posts this as A Day in the Life of a Coast Guard cadet
Plan of the Day
From Reveille to Taps
6:00 AM – Reveille
The day begins early at the Coast Guard Academy. Reveille marks the start of the day and is a reminder that with a new day comes responsibility, honor, respect and devotion to duty
6:20 AM – Morning Formation/Breakfast
Formations take place every morning and afternoon – in the quad when it's fair weather, or inside during foul weather. Formations are a time to meet with your Company to share information and inspect uniforms
7:00 AM – Military Training
At certain times of the week, in the morning or evening, you'll engage in military training. These trainings are designed to further enhance your professional development and prepare you as a leader
8:00 AM – Morning Classes
Classes at the Academy are small and led by professors who know of what they teach. Academy faculty are highly experienced, and their knowledge and insights greatly enhance their teaching
12:00 PM – Lunch
After noon formation, you'll head to the mess hall for lunch. Command views lunch as another training period – you'll learn to socialize at a table, to eat with good manners and be prepared when a superior asks you questions
1:00 PM – Afternoon Classes
These are not ordinary college classes. When your teacher arrives, someone will yell, "Attention on deck!" You'll then stand with your fellow cadets until the teacher tells you to "carry on." It's very orderly
4:00 PM – Athletics
Each afternoon, academics are put aside and cadets report for daily athletic practice. Here, every cadet is an athlete – whether competing on an intercollegiate team, in a club sport, or as part of the Academy's inter-company intramurals program.
6:00 PM – Dinner
After practice, you'll head to dinner, which is a time to decompress. Dinner is buffet-style and takes place in a more relaxed setting. It's a time to gather with friends, joke and laugh, and enjoy some good chow.
7:00 PM – Evening Study Period
Corps-wide events and club meetings take place at 7:00; otherwise cadets go straight to studying. Cadets will often meet up with classmates to study, or they may choose the library and its comfortable chairs and free coffee and tea!
10:00 PM – Taps
Every night at 2200, taps is played on a bugle. Performed at funerals, memorial services and at the end of the day, the purpose of taps is to signify the close of the day and to remember the sacrifices others have made before you.
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy offers nine academic majors, with a liberal arts-based core curriculum
Civil Engineering. The Civil Engineering program prepares future officers to design, build, operate and maintain structures and systems that help the Coast Guard work and solve real world problems
Electrical Engineering. Electrical Engineering is cutting-edge preparation for exciting careers with a focus on addressing critical technological needs
Cyber Systems. The major prepares future officers to defend against cyber attacks, protect information and systems, and deter crime
Mechanical Engineering. The Mechanical Engineering major develops each student’s ability to apply scientific principles in the design and analysis of mechanical and energy/power systems
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. The NA&ME major provides a strong foundation in engineering, mathematics and the sciences, focused on the design, operation and repair of ships and boats
Operation Research and Computer Analysis. The ORCA major emphasizes the practical application of mathematics, statistics and computer techniques to analyze complex issues and provide informed solutions
Marine and Environmental Sciences. MES integrates oceanography, chemistry, and biology to study the complex relationships between humans and the land, oceans and atmosphere
Management. The Management major educates students in the broad array of functional skills and analytical processes required of today's leaders and managers
Government
The government major develops leaders who can think critically about political systems and societies and understand their cultural, historical and theoretical underpinnings
Maritime Studies Curriculum
The following courses are part of the core academic curriculum of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in preparation for the job of a commissioned officer in the Coast Guard
Fundamentals of Navigation
Fundamentals of Navigation is an exploration of the basic principles of Earth's characteristics and terrestrial navigation for which a Deck Watch Officer or entry-level officer will be responsible. The goal is to prepare you to serve as a navigation team member during the 3/c summer training program on EAGLE or another cutter in the fleet. Labs include training in the part-task ship simulator, a visit to the Mystic Seaport Planetarium, and an underway voyage on the Training Vessel (T/V) Shuman
Applications in Navigation
This course builds upon Fundamentals of Navigation and the experiences of 3/c summer. The goal is to introduce the concept of relative motion plotting to aid in preventing collisions at sea, and to build proficiency in voyage planning and as a navigation team member. This course culminates with cadets preparing and presenting a Navigation Brief to a panel of officers from across the Academy, preparing you not only for graduation but also for next summer's Coastal Sail Training Program
Maritime Watch Officer
The Maritime Watch Officer explores knowledge and skills vital to successful performance as an Ensign. This course introduces new watch team skills, including electronic charting, RADAR, and using the bridge-to-bridge radio. Classroom discussions are reinforced and applied in the ship simulators and underway on the training vessels within a watch team construct. Team Coordination Training concepts are analyzed in group projects, where cadets investigate Coast Guard Cutter mishaps
Professional Maritime Officer
This capstone course integrates previous nautical science topics to prepare cadets to pass the National Maritime Center approved licensing examination. Lab assignments in the ship simulators and aboard 65-foot training vessels develop critical thinking and decision-making skills in navigation and ship handling, while also reinforcing Bridge Resource Management concepts. After completing this course and passing the final exam, cadets are eligible to apply for a Master - 100 Gross Tons Near Coastal license
Directed Studies in Professional Maritime Studies (Elective)
Cadets are encouraged to use free electives to further professional studies. Options include research into cutter, sector or aviation operations. Specific content will vary
The first Coast Guard Academy, nine cadets, then called the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction, was held aboard the two-masted topsail schooner Dobbin in 1876. The barque Eagle, originally constructed by Adolf Hitler to train German naval engineers and seized by the U.S. as war reparations, since 1946 has served as a sail training platform. The Academy became fully integrated in 1966 and admitted women for the first time in 1976
the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
300 Steamboat Road
Kings Point NY 11024
The United States Merchant Marine Academy is a federal service academy educating graduates committed to serve the national security, marine transportation, and economic needs of the United States as licensed Merchant Marine Officers and commissioned officers in the U.S. Armed Forces
The United States Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] funds and operates the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York
Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of the world's merchandize is transported over water. The United States imports approximately 85 percent of some 77 strategic commodities critical to America's industry and defense. The United States, representing six percent of the world population, purchases nearly a third of the world's raw materials. The purpose of the United States Merchant Marine Academy is to ensure a consistent supply of capable and well-trained merchant mariners to move those goods. The study of merchant marine operations at the university level is the core of the education strategy at the Merchant Marine Academy, with particular attention paid to the Academy’s essential responsibility to meet national security and maritime defense readiness, without the academy being strictly within the Department of Defense
Graduates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the six state maritime academies are service officers in the United States Merchant Marine, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the nation’s intermodal transportation system
Midshipmen who graduate the Merchant Marine Academy earn unique credentials:
- A highly-regarded Bachelor of Science degree
- A U.S. Coast Guard license
- An officer’s commission in the U.S. Armed Forces
All graduates have a service obligation upon graduation that provides the most career options offered by any of the federal academies:
- Graduates can choose to work five years in the United States maritime industry with eight years of service as an officer in any reserve unit of the Armed Forces
- Or five years on active duty in any of the nation’s Armed Forces
In time of war or national emergency, the U.S. Merchant Marine becomes vital to national security as the fourth arm of defense. Merchant ships acting as an auxiliary unit of the U.S. Navy can be ordered to national service and deliver troops, supplies and equipment overseas to forces and allies. The provisions of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration Maritime Security Program https://www.maritime.dot.gov/national-security/strategic-sealift/maritime-security-program-msp solidify and extend those provisions and authority
The United States Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] chartered the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) as its flagship merchant marine academy, built from the ground up to train and educate merchant marine officers
A congressional endorsement is required for the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) as well, and its entrance requirements and curriculum are as rigorous as the military service academies. The USMMA curriculum is especially challenging as it condenses a four-year degree into only three years of study – symbolizing to MARAD that the maritime industry needs mariners
The State Maritime Academies
The United States Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] also provides limited Federal assistance and training vessels to six State Maritime Academies (SMA). These four-year undergraduate programs operate as colleges within state universities. The state maritime academies do not require a congressional endorsement, but still include all the instruction, theory, and at-sea training required to become a commissioned officer and Merchant Marine (a U.S. Coast Guard license). For additional information, reach out to an SMA today or contact MARAD's Office of Maritime Labor and Training
Academics at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
Midshipmen select their major course of study from among five programs:
Marine Engineering Systems: Emphasizing marine engineering design
Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management: Managing shipyards and large engineering endeavors
Marine Engineering: Focused on shipboard engineering operations
Marine Transportation: Combining nautical science and maritime business management
Maritime Logistics and Security: Combining nautical science and logistics and security management
Licensing as a Merchant Mariner
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/nmc/merchant_mariner_credential/
Licensing as a merchant mariner is regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard, which is one of the services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard maintains the National Maritime Center (link above) to expedite the mariner credentialling process
Here, you are one in the Regiment of Midshipmen
Here, on Long Island’s North Shore on a slope looking toward Long Island Sound is a monument to the Academy's World War II casualties. On a grassy knoll to the south is an interfaith chapel. Campus facilities include an outdoor swimming pool; a boat basin, and the Yocum Waterfront Center; science and engineering in Gibbs Hall, humanities in Samuels Halls, a Continuing Education Office and Computer Resources Office, a ship's bridge simulator, and more natural science laboratories
Sea Year
The defining moment of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy life is Sea Year.
The strategy is to learn by doing. The method is a year at sea.
Midshipmen work at everything. Midshipmen repair the engines, mop the decks, load cargo, navigate the ship to a berth on the dock. Sea Year is an academic year as well, so there is a sea project to complete. One motto of the Merchant Marine Academy Sea Year is Keep your eyes and ears wide open
United States Merchant Marine Academy
300 Steamboat Road
Kings Point, NY 11024
United States
516-726-5800
www.usmma.edu/
The State Maritime Academies
The United States Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] also provides limited Federal assistance and training vessels to six State Maritime Academies (SMA). These four-year undergraduate programs operate as colleges within state universities. The state maritime academies do not require a congressional endorsement, but still include all the instruction, theory, and at-sea training required to become a commissioned officer and Merchant Marine (a U.S. Coast Guard license)
Licensing as a Merchant Mariner
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/nmc/merchant_mariner_credential/
Licensing as a merchant mariner is regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard, which is one of the services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard maintains the National Maritime Center (link above) to expedite the mariner credentialling process
California State University Maritime Academy
200 Maritime Academy Drive
Vallejo CA 94590
707.654.1000 (fax) 707.654.1013
Founded 1929, one of 23 campuses in the California State University system, 907 students, the only U.S. maritime academy on the West Coast. Every student at Cal Maritime is a merchant mariner in training, and belongs to the Corps of Cadets
Cal Maritime cadets are required to wear uniforms, and traditional customs and traditions apply, including a demerit-based disciplinary system. Based on academic majors cadets are organized into Squads, Sections, Divisions and Companies which regularly muster in Morning Formations several times a week, as well as stand watches on campus and aboard the training ship Golden Bear
No military obligation is attached to graduation from Cal Maritime. But the financial aid and career boosts of military program participation do exist. Students can opt for the Coast Guard Auxiliary University Program, Maritime Academy Graduate Program; the Navy Strategic Sealift Officer Program, or the Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force ROTCs
Cal Maritime offers one graduate and six undergraduate degrees, all tied to a nautical curriculum. An additional oceanography is anticipated Fall 2020
By Fall 2018 statistics, Cal Maritime has the largest enrollment percentage of Pacific Islander and multiracial Americans, the second largest percentage white; and the third largest percentage citing ‘unknown’ in the California State system
Office of Marine Programs
The Office of Marine Programs oversees the Cal Maritime program. The department manages all shipboard and waterfront training and cadet professional development. The Cal Maritime physical campus encompasses an historic Boathouse, the Marina, and several vessels, especially smaller craft in the respected small boat program, in their view the best in the nation
Cadets train on anything that floats, from rowboats to work boats to tug boats, and on the Training Ship Golden Bear. Cadets in the summer of the first and third years take a two-month summer learning Annual Training cruise on the Golden Bear with licensed faculty officers, where the cadets learn every aspect of operating an ocean-going vessel while visiting foreign ports-of-call throughout the Pacific Rim. Cadets working toward a license (the license program is not required of all cadets) can learn the responsibility of command, refine technical skills, and demonstrate or improve their leadership styles
Maritime Training Facilities
Training Ship Golden Bear
The 500-foot Golden Bear serves as the primary sailing training platform
State of the art Navigation Laboratory (NAV Lab)
According to Cal Maritime, the new multi-million-dollar NAV Lab will be the finest such navigation training platform in the country
Waterfront and Maritime Operations
During fall and spring, specialized training occurs on the Cal Maritime fleet of rowboats, work boats, tug boats, and T-boats, in a structured learning hierarchy starting with the double-ended rowboats and ending with the tug, crew boat, and T-boats. Classes in water safety, shipboard maintenance, operations, management, and small boat handling are taught year-round. Cadets on the summer training cruise take a U.S. Coast Guard Lifeboatman exam and must pass both written and practical tests
Cal Maritime Compass Points
Cal Maritime uses the metaphor of the four points of the compass to symbolize their educational mission to students: intellectual learning, applied technology, leadership development, and global awareness
Applied technology is intended to augment, enrich, and supplement traditional classroom intellectual learning. Leadership development is informed by the action-oriented, real-world demands of the maritime industry and promotes a maritime leader who at all times does good for the greater good. Global awareness is based on substantive and applicable knowledge of critical global political, economic, and social problems of the world
Northwestern Michigan College
1701 East Front Street
Traverse City, MI 49686-3061
(231) 995-1200 or 1-800-0566 X 5 X 1203; (231) 995-1318 (fax)
Established 1969, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College is on West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, Michigan, the only maritime academy on fresh water. The Great Lakes Maritime Academy is the only maritime academy to offer graduates the opportunity to earn First Class Great Lakes Pilotage
Students are cadets, who earn a Bachelor of Science degree and their Federal U.S. Coast Guard license to sail as an officer on both the Great Lakes and the oceans
The license is the largest U.S. Coast Guard license for Deck and Engineering Officers on the oceans or Great Lakes
Maritime Careers
Based on annual employment reports filed by the largest Great Lakes and oceans operators, demand for new officers exists each year to fill positions aboard Great Lakes vessels. Industry demand is based on vacancies resulting from officer retirements, shoreside opportunities, fleet expansion, and the increasing demand for unlimited tonnage U.S. Flag Officers internationally
Shoreside opportunities exist in transportation management, port management, ship surveying, import/export industries, the federal government, and ship brokerage
The Great Lakes Maritime Academy focuses on those interested in working as officers aboard commercial vessels and seeks prospective students year-round
Ship officers typically work an eight-hours day, usually following a schedule of hours on duty and off. A deck officer is responsible for the management of the deck department. This includes navigating and piloting the ship, loading and unloading cargo, and seeing to ship's business, discipline, and the well-being of crew, vessel safety, and security
An engineering officer is responsible for the management of the shipboard engineering department: engine room business, operation, and preventive maintenance of the machinery and equipment aboard ship
Sea Projects
Maritime cadets complete three semesters at sea, known as Sea Projects. Maritime cadets complete essential sea time aboard the Training Ship State of Michigan and up to 300 days aboard the commercial vessels of the Great Lakes and oceans. During these internships, cadets learn the duties and responsibilities of an Officer aboard ship, shipboard operations and experience life aboard ship. Cadets also complete assigned homework to send to their instructors at the Academy on a regular basis
Sea time is arranged by the Academy with the very shipping companies that will be a future source of employment for graduates
Upon successful completion of program requirements, Deck cadets write their USCG exam as Third Mate Great Lakes and Oceans, Unlimited tonnage and their First Class Great Lakes Pilot license. Engineering Cadets write their USCG exam as Third Assistant Engineer, Steam and Motor Vessels of any Horsepower
With the Coast Guard licenses, successful Great Lakes Maritime Academy cadets earn a bachelor's degree in Maritime Technology. This program prepares graduates for management level positions aboard the largest ships of any type on the Great Lakes and oceans. Individuals who are admitted to the academy follow a four-year curriculum, with a condensed curriculum offered to those who have already earned a Bachelor's (or higher) degree. The maritime curriculum includes classroom instruction, labs, simulation and three semesters at sea
Graduates are fully compliant with federal STCW 95 (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping)
The college is approved by the U.S. Maritime Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Michigan Department of Education. Fall semester and a new class begin mid-August
The college also organizes professional education and training for officers, including courses such as:
- RADAR re-certification courses
- Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
- Able Seaman
- Qualified Member of the Engine Department
Watch the activities of Great Lakes Maritime Academy training cruises through webcams around the Great Lakes https://www.nmc.edu/maritime/about/webcam.html
- Algonac Web Cam
- Cleveland Web Cam
- Detroit River Web Cam
- Duluth Harbor Web Cam
- Mackinac Bridge Authority Cams
- Mackinac Island Webcams
- Marine City Ship Cam
- Michigan Tech (Houghton) Webcams
- Port Huron Cam
- Port Huron Cam - shipping traffic on the St. Clair River
- Soo Locks Webcam
- Sault Ste Marie Live Web Cam
Pleasant Street
Castine, ME 04220
800-464-6565; 326-4311 (switchboard); (207) 326-2110 (fax)
Founded March 21, 1941, by an act of the 90th Maine Legislature, the Maine Maritime Academy is a public, co-educational college in the coastal town of Castine, Maine
About 950 students are in the Regiment of Midshipmen and study engineering, management, science, and transportation in an experiential environment, working toward associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degrees
Maine Maritime Academy train on international sea-time aboard the Training Ship State of Maine or the two-masted wooden-hulled Schooner Bowdoin, cadet shipping aboard commercial vessels, and cooperative education assignments
Maine Maritime Academy claims a job-placement rate for graduates in excess of 90 percent within 90 days of graduation
A congressional recommendation is not required to attend this state school. Students are not obligated to go to sea or into the military after graduation, and a large portion of the graduating class chooses shore-side employment, often in maritime related fields or the power generation industry. Maine Maritime Academy is one of the six, non-federal, maritime training colleges in the U.S. and one of only two to field a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit
The academy offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees through four schools:
- School of Engineering
- Thompson School of Marine Transportation
- Loeb-Sullivan School of International Business and Logistics
- Corning School of Ocean Studies
Two graduate level programs are offered through the Loeb-Sullivan School of International Business and Logistics. Students studying in all engineering majors and Marine Transportation Operations are required to complete at least one co-op, some majors requiring multiple
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
101 Academy Drive
Buzzards Bay, MNA 02532
(508) 830-5000; (508) 830-5004
Founded 1891, Massachusetts Maritime Academy (Mass Maritime) is a fully-accredited, four-year co-ed public college in located at the mouth of Cape Cod Canal o Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, the second oldest state maritime academy. Though not required, some graduates go on to serve in active and reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces. The academy operates a training ship, the USTS Kennedy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy offers highly-regarded bachelor and master of science degrees in emergency management, energy systems engineering, facilities engineering, international maritime business, marine engineering, marine transportation, and marine science, safety and environmental protection. Graduate programs are in emergency management, facilities management and maritime business management
Mass Maritime structures its students as the Regiment of Midshipmen. Only cadets who volunteer for commissioning programs have military obligations
Mass Maritime utilizes the structure of Sea Terms and Cooperative Education Programs to provide hands-on training
Sea terms (52 days) are conducted between the two academic semesters, in January and February. Cadets register soon after the New Year holiday and prepare the USTSKennedy for sailing, including loading provisions in the freezers and dry stores spaces. The ship sails for foreign ports of the Caribbean Sea three out of four years, and one in four formerly traveled to the Mediterranean Sea. At least one of the Caribbean voyages includes the Panama Canal and an Equator crossing. Cadets rotate through class and laboratory training at sea, ships operations including deck and engine watches, maintenance and emergency drills
The United States Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD) recognizes the Academy as one of six state maritime colleges approved to prepare graduates for federal license examination as third mate, ocean vessels, unlimited tonnage or third assistant engineer, steam or motor, unlimited horsepower
Degrees and Programs
Energy Systems Engineering. The Energy Systems Engineering program prepares graduates for careers in engineering planning, design, and installation of equipment and systems required for the generation, management, and distribution of electrical power. Curriculum includes advanced mathematics, applied engineering, and courses in the design of alternative and renewable energy systems.
Facilities Engineering. The Facilities Engineering program prepares graduates for careers in facilities engineering, management, and operations. Facilities engineers are responsible for the safe, economical, and sustainable operation of various equipment and systems in large facilities such as manufacturing plants, office buildings, hospitals, and power plants
Marine Engineering. The Marine Engineering program prepares graduates for careers as licensed engineering officers in the United States Merchant Marine and for engineering positions in associated shoreside industries
Emergency Management. The Emergency Management program has been developed to address each of the three key concepts: hazard, risk, and disaster. The program component for hazard and risk (risk management) consists of a framework that explores four states of assessment and management including risk assessment; control analysis; strategy; and implementation and evaluation
Marine Science, Safety, and Environmental Protection. This program is touted as next-level environmental science, preparation for government, non-profit, and private sector careers in environmental protection, environmental management, and marine and industrial health and safety
International Maritime Business. The International Maritime Business program prepares graduates to enter the maritime shipping and transportation industry as a business professional. The program includes elements of international business, logistics, and transportation
Marine Transportation. The Marine Transportation major prepares students for careers as licensed ship's deck officers, also allowing them to easily transfer into management and operations positions within the transportation, intermodal and petroleum industries
The Massachusetts Maritime Academy was founded by an act of the Massachusetts legislature on June 11, 1891 as the Massachusetts Nautical Training School, the name changing in 1913 to the Massachusetts Nautical School, taking its present name in 1942. The school's first training ship was the USS Enterprise on loan from the Navy. The school was located at a pier in Boston until 1936, moving to Hyannis on Cape Cod until 1946 when the Academy acquired land at the State Pier on Taylors Point in Buzzards Bay at the south end of the Cape Cod Canal with a berth deep enough to accommodate the USS Charleston, the school's new training ship. A classroom building was built, but life and education at the school continued to revolve around the training ship Charleston for the next 25 years. Women were admitted 1978. Prior to 1990, the academy only offered majors in the ship transport subjects of marine transportation and marine engineering. The academy now offers many more majors
Scale model ship-handling program. Unique one-of-its-kind in the U.S., off-campus program run on a pond ten miles away. Many types of 'ships' and several scale model 'ports' are set up on the pond. The quality of the training ship's officers receive from this program is such that the U.S. Coast Guard will remit a quarter of the sea time required to upgrade a deck officer's license from Chief Mate to Master upon successful completion of the course
Regiment of Cadets. All residential students are members of the Regiment of Cadets. Cadets supervise other cadets in a broad variety of activities, including freshman orientation, room inspections, Morning Formation, daily cleaning stations, study hours, sea term planning and shipboard responsibilities. Freshmen, called Youngies (short for young ladies and gentlemen), arrive at the Academy in mid-August for Orientation, a two-week military-style physically and mentally demanding indoctrination program requiring regimental training, military drill, and physical fitness. It also serves as an introduction to shipboard/maritime safety, nomenclature, and customs. The indoctrination period and cadet candidate program is essential to the preparation for the youngies' first semester at sea (sea term) in January
After Orientation, the academic year begins. For the rest of their first academic year as fourth-class cadets, Youngies continue to be required to adhere to stringent rules affecting many aspects of their daily life. Second class cadets (juniors) are designated Squad Leaders and are in charge of training Youngies. First class cadets (seniors) hold cadet officer positions within the regiment or aboard the training ship
Shanghai exchange program. The academy offers an exchange program to Shanghai Maritime Academy, an 18,000-student school situated next to a deep-water port. Cadets spend 100 days in the Shanghai program taking maritime business, law, and marketing classes and exploring the country. Four months later, Chinese cadets spend a semester at Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Campus alternative and renewable energy. A green energy initiative consists of solar panels on top of the dormitories providing 81 kilowatts of solar power and a 660 kilowatt wind turbine providing nearly 20 percent of the campus's electricity. Micro-turbines (small scale combustion turbines) generate electricity for the campus while utilizing the waste heat and flue exhaust to heat the hot water used in the dormitories
The 42,000-square-foot, $23 million American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Information Commons is a LEED Platinum Building opened September 2011. Construction used 100% recycled steel; 20% recycled concrete; and 40% recycled insulation. The wood in the building is all bamboo. The building is geothermal cooled and heated along with chilled beam technology. Additional light sensors and natural light are provided with skylights. The building is furnished with water conserving fixtures and the landscaping uses no irrigation for planted areas. Water captured from the roof irrigates plantings adjacent to the building. The pitch of the roof increases airflow directed toward the wind turbine eight percent
6 Pennyfield Avenue
Fort Schuyler, Throggs Neck, the Bronx, NY 10465-4198
(718) 409-7200; (718) 409-7261 (fax)
Founded 1874, the State University of New York Maritime College (SUNY Maritime College) is an urban public maritime college in New York City, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, and the first college of its kind (federally approved, offering commercial nautical instruction), one of the seven degree-granting maritime academies in the United States
History of SUNY Maritime. Following a Civil War decline in the American maritime industry and a growing concern about the professionalism of its officers, the New York Chamber of Commerce and maritime interests of the Port of New York lobbied the state legislature in 1873 to create a professional nautical school for the city. Lacking a ship, the chamber teamed with the noted naval education reformer and modernizer Stephen B. Luce, who led a national effort to persuade Congress that individual states could request from the Navy retired or obsolete vessels to train seamen. The state of New York this acquired the USS St. Mary's on December 14, 1874
Originally modeled by the New York Board of Education as a grammar school teaching common school subjects (along with nautical classes) during the winter term, and practical cruises during the summer term, at an annual appropriation much higher than a regular public school, the school often faced closure, but remained open. In 1921, the school, which had long moved from berth to berth, found itself at Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor, being allowed to use army facilities eventually deemed inadequate to teach modern merchant mariners
A 1927 effort resulted in the acquisition of a larger ship called the Procyon, renamed the Empire State, effectively doubling the size of the school. Renamed the New York State Merchant Marine Academy in 1929, the school became land-based in 1938 at the present Throggs Neck campus in Fort Schuyler. One of Franklin D. Roosevelt's last acts as Governor of New York State was to turn Fort Schuyler and the Throggs Neck peninsula over to the school for use as a shore-based facility of higher education. Work restoring Fort Schuyler was done at first by the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) in 1934 followed by the Works Progress Administration in 1935, allowing the school to open by 1938. In 1946 degree conferring status was granted, and the academy became a college, one of the original institutions incorporated into the State University of New York system in 1948
SUNY Maritime College educates dynamic leaders for the global marine transportation industry, the business of shipping, engineering, energy, facilities management, finance, the armed forces and public service. Students choose from eleven undergraduate majors, including five ABET-accredited engineering programs: electrical engineering; facilities engineering; marine engineering; mechanical engineering; naval architecture; and six others: international transportation and trade; marine environmental science; marine transportation; marine operations; and maritime studies
Two graduate curriculums are offered: Master of Science degrees in international transportation management and maritime and naval studies
ROTC options and U.S. Coast Guard license programs. The license program prepares students to navigate, power and operate marine vessels. In addition to their degrees, both programs offer students the opportunity to earn a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner deck officer license, which qualifies them to operate marine vessels
The college offers a stand-alone Advanced Certificate in supply chain management and a certification in international ship chartering. Both certificates may be earned independently or with the International Transportation Management master's degree
Cadets in the Regiment pursuing a U.S. Coast Guard license are required to complete seagoing experiences including Summer Sea Term (SST) and/or Cadet Shipping (on commercial or government owned civilian-crewed ships). Both experiences provide valuable hands-on shipboard learning
Cadets wear uniforms, but are not part of the military and there is no military service obligation. Most cadets are working to earn a U.S. Coast Guard license in addition to their degree. You do not need to be in the license program to be part of the regiment
Cadets must complete three seagoing experiences from the following options:
- 3 SSTs on the College Training Ship Empire State VI
- 2 SSTs on the Empire State VI plus1 Cadet Shipping experience (in lieu of 1 SST aboard the Training Ship)
Student Profile
- Total Enrollment: 1832
- Undergraduates: 1635
- Graduate: 197
- Student – Faculty Ratio: 16 – 1
- Average Class Size: 21
- Bachelor of Engineering – 5 major programs
- Bachelor of Science – 5 major programs
- Master of Science – 2 major programs
- Associate of Applied Science – 1 major program
- S. Coast Guard License – 4 programs (unlimited deck and engine license; limited deck and engine license)
US Coast Guard Licensing Programs at SUNYMaritime
Students at SUNYMaritime have the option of studying for a Merchant Marine license issued by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). All students pursuing a license must be part of the Regiment of Cadets and participate in the Summer Sea Terms and authorized sea service onboard commercial vessels
SUNYMaritime offers the following broad range of licenses:
Deck
- Unlimited Third Mate Oceans; Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch
- Mate (500 or 1,600 Gross Registered Tons); Near Coastal or Oceans; Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch on ships of 500 gross tons or more
Engine
- Unlimited Third Assistant Engineer Steam, Motor, or Gas Turbine; Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch
- Assistant Engineer (Limited) motor propelled vessels, on vessels of any horsepower. Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch in a Manned Engine Room or Designated Duty Engineer in a Periodically Unmanned Engine Room on vessels powered by main propulsion machinery of 750KW/1,000HP or more, limited to motor vessels
Unlimited licenses lead to a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Engineering degree. Students must pass the USCG license exam. Limited licenses are administered through the Maritime Technology and Operations Department and lead to an AAS degree
These programs must also comply with both federal guidelines and international standards related to maritime education. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, as amended, sets qualification standards for seafarers on seagoing merchant ships
***USCG is responsible for implementing STCW training in the United States
Programs Offering an Unlimited Third Mate or Third Assistant Engine License
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
- Electrical Engineering (Deck or Engine)
- Facilities Engineering (Engine)
- Marine Engineering (Engine)
- Mechanical Engineering (Engine)
- Naval Architecture (Deck or Engine)
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
- Marine Environmental Science (Deck)
- Marine Operations (Deck or Engine)
- Marine Transportation (Deck)
- Maritime Studies (Deck)
MASTER OF SCIENCE
- International Transportation Management (Deck)
- Maritime and Naval Studies (Deck)
Programs Offering a Limited Deck or Engine License
A.A.S. IN MARINE TECHNOLOGY: SMALL VESSEL OPERATIONS WITH DECK LIMITED LICENSE
- Mate (500 or 1,600 Gross Registered Tons) Near Coastal or Oceans; Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch on ships of 500 gross tons or more.
A.A.S. IN MARINE TECHNOLOGY: SMALL VESSEL OPERATIONS WITH ENGINE LIMITED LICENSE
- Assistant Engineer (Limited) motor propelled vessels of any horsepower. Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch in a Manned Engine Room or Designated Duty Engineer in a Periodically Unmanned Engine Room on vessels powered by main propulsion machinery of 750KW/1,000HP or more, limited to motor vessels
Cadet Shipping Requirements
- Successful completion of one cruise aboard the Empire State VI
- Minimum GPA of 2.3
- Good regimental standing; cadets with a Class I offense or excessive demerits in the same conduct year as the application are not eligible
- Valid MMC with appropriate endorsements
- Valid TWIC
- Valid passport
- Must obtain a USCG-719K
- STCW letters and drug letters, coordinated by the cadet shipping coordinator with the Licensing department and the regiment of cadets
- No failing grade on any license course
Cadet Shipping Periods
SPRING
Replaces the second-class cruise. Cadets must apply through their academic department early in the fall to determine eligibility. Once approved by the academic department and the regiment of cadets, candidates will attend the fall cadet shipping meeting. Students will ship out Christmas Day through the beginning of pre-cruise.
SUMMER
Replaces the second-class cruise. Cadets must apply through their academic department early in the fall to determine eligibility. Once approved by the academic department and the regiment of cadets, candidates attend the spring cadet shipping meeting. Students ship out at the end of spring semester until the start of fall semester
POST-CRUISE
This program is only available to cadets registered for the first half of summer sea term. Does not require academic department approval. Students apply through the cadet shipping program and must attend an informational meeting in the spring.
Students will ship out for eight weeks, from July to the start of the fall semester.
WINTER
Students apply for the winter session through the cadet shipping program and do not need approval from their academic department. Candidates must attend an informational meeting in October. Students ship out for four weeks, from the end of the fall semester to the start of the spring semester
SUNYMaritime Famous Alumni
Scott Kelly, NASA astronaut and twin brother of the senator from Arizona; Joseph Hazelwood, master of the Exxon Valdez; ballet dancer and choreographer Edward Villella; and Arctic adventurer Ross Marvin (1902) who accompanied Robert Peary on his expeditions to the North Pole, where he may have been murdered. Journalist Geraldo Rivera attended but did not graduate
200 Seawolf Parkway (physical address)
P.O. Box 1675 (mailing address)
1001 Texas Clipper Road (shipping address)
Galveston, TX 77553-1675
1-87-SEA AGGIE
(877-322-4443)
It’s a branch of Texas A&M, the Aggies. And it’s on an island
Pelican Island
Founded 1962, students enrolled at Texas A&M University at Galveston (the Sea Aggies), share the benefits of students attending the Texas A&M University (TAMU) campus in College Station. Texas A&M at Galveston [TAMUG] is located on Pelican Island in Galveston Bay, a benefit for the maritime focus of the campus
The Mitchell Campus, situated on Galveston harbor close to the confluence of the Galveston and Houston ship channels, has immediate access to the ocean and to estuarine areas including Galveston Bay. The Port of Galveston and Port of Houston are nearby, as are many Gulf Coast industries. Texas A&M Maritime Academy is the only U.S. maritime academy on the Gulf Coast
Academic programs are distinctively ocean-focused, and include marine biology, marine fisheries, marine engineering technology, marine sciences, marine transportation, maritime administration, maritime studies, maritime systems engineering, oceans and coastal resources, university studies (focused on marine environmental law and policy)
There is a Navy-option-only NROTC unit on campus. (Marine Corps-option NROTC cadets must attend the main campus in College Station, TX.)
The Texas A&M Maritime Academy
The Texas A&M Maritime Academy provides an opportunity to learn to operate and maintain an ocean-going vessel. In addition to classroom and field training, students sail aboard the Texas A&M training ship during three summer cruises for practical experience in seamanship, navigation, and operations. Cruises may include Northern Europe, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the United States. At the conclusion of studies, Midshipmen are tested to become licensed officers in the U.S. Merchant Marine and may seek employment as a licensed Third Mate or Third Assistant Engineer. The NROTC Program offers men and women an opportunity to qualify for a commission in the Navy while attending TAMUG
The current training ship is the General Rudder, named for legendary Texas A&M graduate James Earl Rudder, who commanded the U.S. Army Rangers during their scaling of Pointe Du Hoc on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Rudder went on to become president of Texas A&M from 1959 until his death in 1970. Thanks to the work of General Rudder and others, the Texas A&M Maritime Academy began operations in 1962
The first ship used by Sea Aggies was the Texas Clipper, a 473-foot, 14,000-ton ship that began as a World War II transport ship called the USS Queens and ferried wounded troops injured on the battlefield, including operations in the Pacific during the battle at Iwo Jima. When the war ended, the ship became one of the Four Aces (the SS Excambion), serving as a luxury cruise liner and making frequent round-trips from New York City to the Mediterranean.
The Texas Clipper was used by hundreds of Sea Aggies from 1965 through 1994 as a floating classroom around the world for students studying maritime sciences, oceanography and marine biology
The ship was replaced by the Texas Clipper II, formerly the USNS Chauvenet designed by the Navy to conduct hydrographic surveys. In 2005, the Texas Clipper II, was replaced by the former USNS Sirius, itself replaced in 2009 by the SS Cape Gibson
The General Rudder began sailing in 1983 as the USNS Contender, an ocean surveillance ship for the U.S. Navy designed to collect underwater acoustical data in support of Cold War anti-submarine warfare
SUMMER SEA TERM. In order to become licensed Merchant Marine officers, cadets must fulfill academic and sea service requirements aboard vessels. Training is usually during the summer between the spring and fall academic sessions. Cadets in the License Option program complete three terms at sea. These are defined by the classification of the cadet, starting with MART/MARE 200, followed by MART/MARE 300 and completed by MART/MARE 400. MART/MARE 200, 300, and 400 must be completed aboard a state training ship where cadets will stand navigation/engine watch, perform maintenance duties, and receive classroom instruction
COMMERCIAL SEA TERM. Commercial Sea Term is an opportunity to sail aboard a commercial vessel, like an internship. This sea term is in lieu of MART/MARE 300 and has a separate academic project tailored to the type of vessel on which the cadet sails. Cadets are selected for commercial opportunities through a competitive application process. Cadets not selected will sail on the scheduled summer training
MART/MARE 484. Cadets not selected for a Commercial Sea Term still have the opportunity to sail aboard a commercial vessel and gain hands-on industry experience and sea service counting towards their license requirements. Because this course does not complete the academic requirements of a Commercial Sea Term (MART/MARE 350), so cadets taking advantage of this opportunity do so in addition to the three foundational Sea Terms
Aggie Traditions
Texas A&M is a university propelled by its traditions, many beginning with the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas in 1876. Later-generation tradition include Silver Taps honoring students who have died, and student-run events like the Student Bonfire
Starting in the 1970s, the students of Texas A&M at Galveston created their own Sea Aggie Bonfire, mirroring the traditions of the College Station student body. The Galveston campus ceased the tradition after the structure in College Station collapsed on November 18, 1999, killing 12 students
Traditions unique to the Galveston campus include underclassmen students rubbing or placing coins upon the anchor of the TS Texas Clipper in front of the library prior to an exam for good luck. To walk beneath the arc of the anchor's chain is reserved as a senior privilege. Stepping on Senior Knoll is also reserved only for upperclassman. Midnight Yell Practice is done on Thursday nights instead of the traditional Friday, allowing time to make the two-hour drive to before the game in College Station on Friday, allowing also for a second Friday Midnight Yell in College Station
Galveston and Aggie Culture
Graduates receive the Aggie Ring and a Texas A&M University diploma. Galveston Island was once the financial center of the South. Today, the city has become a major tourist center with a strong representation of marine and maritime interests. College dances have been held in the Ashton Villa Ballroom (a restored 1859 mansion), in the Garten Verein (a restored octagonal dancing pavilion in Kempner Park) and aboard the Elissa and the Colonel. The Grand 1894 Opera House, the Lone Star Amphitheater, and other local theaters allow TAMUG students involvement in theater events. The new Moody Gardens Conference Center houses a digital IMAX theater and a unique tropical garden pyramid biome. The city has several historical districts, museums and musical groups including the Galveston Symphony Orchestra and the Galveston Beach Band
Texas A&M Maritime students originate from 42 different states and the District of Columbia. Science and engineering majors number 71 percent of the student body; 40 percent are women and about 59 percent receive some type of financial aid.
Webb Institute
Billing itself as This is Not Your Typical Engineering College, Webb Institute (Glen Cove, New York) really is a truly unique private undergraduate engineering college. All enrolled US citizens and permanent residents are granted full tuition scholarships. All students graduate with a (dual) Bachelor of Science degree in naval architecture and marine engineering. More, the Institute claims one hundred per cent job placement for graduates. Webb Institute is noted in the marine industry for its unique emphasis on ship design, systems engineering, and practical work experience, including two months of guaranteed internships every academic year
The division of marine engineering includes courses that pertain directly to marine machinery. The sequence begins with an introductory survey of propulsion and auxiliary systems. In the following years, detailed studies of machinery and systems are undertaken, including design aspects of steam generators, steam and gas turbines, diesel engines, heat exchangers, power transmission systems, main engine support systems, piping systems, HVAC systems, and control systems. Concepts of system integration, configuration management, and rational evaluation of alternative approaches are stressed.
The sequence culminates in a project in which the students prepare an outline proposal for a complete power plant for a specific application and undertake an investigation of its economic merit in comparison with a group of likely alternatives
In naval architecture: The fundamental laws of buoyancy, stability, and strength are fully considered, as these have universal application to all kinds of ships and floating structures. The study of naval architecture is begun in the freshman year to familiarize the student as early as possible with ship and shipbuilding terms, technical facets of ship analysis and design, shipyard arrangements, and general methods of ship construction. Major subjects covered are hydrostatics, stability, ship structure, ship dynamics, resistance, and propulsion….. It is the aim of the courses to cover the fundamentals of naval architecture in the time available, so that the specialized study of any one of a number of particular types or classes of ships may be left to the individual who, after graduation, is especially concerned with them
Ship Design I (junior year), II and III (senior capstone)
Ship Design I: Introduction to the ship design process, from the concept/feasibility study stages through to detail design. Ship design as a decision-making process, with design factors: estimation, tradeoffs, synthesis, risk assessment, aesthetics, iteration, optimization, and learning. The work product (in teams) is the initial design of a small vessel of choice. Topics discussed are parametric analysis, hull sizing, space and general arrangements, estimation of weights and centers, structural arrangements, stability, powering, propulsion, and regulations
Following completion of the small vessel design project, the design problem statement for a large, oceangoing ship is developed, and initial conceptual sizing is performed. This oceangoing ship design is developed further in subsequent courses
Ship Design II: The preliminary design from Ship Design I is completed in several projects over the semester. A general arrangement of the vessel, along with a powering analysis, is first. A lines plan is developed, based on the preliminary hull. Next, another iteration of the arrangements is made, and finally, the intact and damaged stability are analyzed. Two hours of class and four drawing-room hours per week
Ship Design III: The preliminary design of the containership is concluded. Classification rules are revisited with a focus on understanding terminology and relevant applicable structural requirements. Hull girder longitudinal strength requirements are evaluated based on classification society rules and quasi-static loading analysis using a longitudinal weight distribution method and general hydrostatics software. Using two representative ship operating conditions and the calculated loads, students design the midship section and verify that the longitudinal structure meets classification society requirements. Design of transverse structural members such as bulkheads and/or deep web frames is carried out, with verification that they meet classification society requirements. The structural performance of the hull girder is analyzed using finite element analysis (FEA) software. Material selection, structural weight, producibility, and access for inspection and maintenance will be emphasized during the design
The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS). Provincetown, Rhode Island
Marine Education Program
The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) has been providing award winning marine education programs since 1976, K-12, college, and adult continuing education, to promote stewardship, raise awareness and increase understanding of marine and coastal environments through educational programs
COREsea Center for Oceanic Research and Education/SouthEast Asia
COREsea is an ‘international nongovernmental organization of scientists, naturalists, environmentalists and other amazing people with a peculiar passion for water’
COREsea describes itself elsewhere as ‘a framework for marine environmentalists, scientists, divers and other passionate people which would like to preserve our biosphere, with a strategy based on reason and the scientific method’
COREsea has facilities in Thailand and Indonesia https://coresea.com/marine-education/
Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County
http://ccesuffolk.org/marine/youth-education/south-fork-marine-education
South Fork Marine Education
Long Island’s South Fork is a worldwide attraction. The Atlantic Ocean and the Peconic, Shinnecock, and lesser Bays are part of the unique culture, for many residents whose livelihoods depend on local marine resources and landscapes, to thousands of summertime visitors. Cornell Cooperative Extension offers K-12 courses in marine topics and ArtSea Camp
CareerExploration.com
Maritime Careers
Companies in the Maritime Industries
This is the American Maritime Partnership 2020 Board of Directors
Let’s see how each one of these companies fits integrally into the maritime industries
Susan Allan, Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc.
Thomas Allegretti, The American Waterways Operators
Mark Barker, Interlake Steamship Company
Gregory Bush, Associated Federal Pilots
Scott Clapham, American Petroleum Tankers
Kelly Dennison, Pasha Hawaii
Mark Sickles, Dredging Contractors of America
Mark Eitzen, Gunderson Marine
James Henry, Transportation Institute
Kevin D. Kendrick, TOTE
Dennis Moran, Fishermen’s Finest, Inc.
Brenda Otterson, American Maritime Officers Service
Ku’uhaku Park [AMP Treasurer] Matson Navigation Company
Matthew Paxton [AMP Secretary] Shipbuilders Council of America
Michael Roberts [AMP President] Crowley Maritime Corporation
Stephen Sheridan, Arcosa, Inc.
Dan Thorogood, SEACOR Holdings Inc.
Jim Weakley, Lake Carriers’ Association
Matt Woodruff [AMP Vice President] Kirby Corporation
Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (OSG - Overseas Shipping Group) (NYSE: OSG) is the operator of a fleet of twenty-four oil tankers and oil tug-barges. It is based in Tampa, Florida, United States, and was founded in 1948.
https://www.osg.com/corporate-profile/default.aspx
From the OSG website: About Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (NYSE: OSG) is a publicly traded company providing energy transportation services for crude oil and petroleum products in the U.S. Flag markets. OSG is a major operator of tankers and ATBs in the Jones Act industry. OSG’s 21 vessel U.S. Flag fleet consists of three crude oil tankers doing business in Alaska, one conventional ATB, two lightering ATBs*, three shuttle tankers, ten MR tankers**, and two non-Jones Act MR tankers that participate in the U.S. Maritime Security Program.*** OSG also currently owns and operates two Marshall Islands flagged MR tankers which trade internationally. In addition to the currently operating fleet, OSG has on order one Jones Act compliant barge which is scheduled for delivery in 2020
*lightering ATB: Articulated Tug Barge, with the capability to transfer cargo between vessels of different sizes (lightering), usually between a lighter barge (itself) and a bulkier oil tanker
**MR tanker: Medium Range tanker. One of the smaller vessels on the Average Freight Rate Assessment [AFRA] scale, the General Purpose (GP) and Medium Range tankers are commonly used to transport cargos of refined petroleum products over relatively shorter distances, such as from Europe to the U.S. East Coast
***U.S. Maritime Security Program: The Maritime Security Program maintains a fleet of commercially viable, militarily useful, privately owned, merchant ships active in international trade. The MSP fleet is available to support U.S. Department of Defense sustainment sealift requirements during times of conflict or national emergencies, and to maintain a United States presence in international commercial shipping. The program provides DoD access to MSP participants’ global intermodal transportation network of terminals, facilities, logistic management services, and U.S. citizen merchant mariners.
Established by the Clinton administration as part of the Maritime Security Act of 1996. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 (S. 1790) authorized the Secretary of Transportation to extend existing Maritime Security Program operating agreements through September 30, 2035. Vessels participate under a set number of operating agreements (60) and receive a retainer incentive in exchange for their participation. Maritime Security Program vessels must be U.S.-registered and must make their ships and commercial transportation resources available upon request by the Secretary of Defense during times of war or national emergency
The American Waterways Operators
801 North Quincy Street, Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22203
T : 703.841.9300 F : 703.841.0389
https://www.americanwaterways.com/
Founded Washington DC, 1944. Maintains regional lobbying offices in Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Washington, DC. Elected Board of Directors
The American Waterways Operators is the national trade association of the U.S. tugboat, towboat, and barge industry
The Interlake Steamship Company
7300 Engle Road
Middleburg Heights Ohio 44130
440.260.6900 (fax) 440.260.6945
http://www.interlake-steamship.com/
Family-owned [Barker and Tregurtha families] fleet of eight U.S.-flag Great Lakes shipping vessels, one more under construction by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Riverclass self-unloading bulk freighter, delivery mid-2022. Named the Mark Barker. Coming from a legacy of Great Lakes shipping dating to 1883, the firm states a commitment to ‘whatever it takes’ to grow Great Lakes shipping while continuing to serve the market. Commitment to sustainability by reducing air emissions, protecting Great Lakes waterways, and minimizing its environmental footprint. How?
Exhaust gas scrubbers: Converting steamships to motor and adding exhaust gas scrubbers (EGS) since 2006, half the fleet outfitted. Scrubber units, attached to the exhaust system of each engine (two), via and injection of sodium hydroxide, neutralizes the majority of sulfur from stack emissions. Exhaust gas blasted through absorption sprays “wash” and remove impurities, remaining sulfur and particulates. Washed exhaust gas then travels through a droplet separator before a signature clean plume of white steam is discharged. (2) Greenhouse gas emissions are cut by harnessing excess engine heat to make steam to heat the ship. No boiler under normal operations
The fleet never leaves the Great Lakes or the St. Lawrence Seaway. Hence, no exposure to invasive species via the ballast water needed to stabilize an off-loaded ship
Minimize fleetwide routine environmental damage. Mission: fuel oil must never come contact the water. Job One: eliminate water-to-oil equipment interfaces. All propeller shaft bearings upgraded from oil-lubricated to water-lubed. Fleetwide-shift to environmentally-friendly oils. In case of an accidental spill, act quickly and responsibly. Each vessel has its own onboard sewage treatment system. Comply with US Coast Guard regulation governing spilled raw materials. Responsibly dispose of all trash and refuse, committed to a fleetwide boat recycling program
Associated Federal Pilots represents the maritime industry of pilotage on the nation’s inland waterways
The American Pilots' Association is the national trade association of professional maritime pilots http://www.americanpilots.org/pilotage_in_the_u_s/index.php
Strict laws govern the use of river pilots on the nation’s inland waterways. The individual states regulate pilotage of international trade vessels in their own waters. The 1789 first Congress of the United States created the state pilotage system, still in use today. Every foreign-flag vessel and every United States-flag vessel engaged in international trade moving in the waters of a state is required by the state to take a pilot licensed by the state. Each U.S.-flag coastwise vessel is required by federal law to use a pilot with a federal license issued by the United States Coast Guard. According to the American Pilots Association, the federal license has lower qualification requirements than a state license, and each state pilot also holds a federal license. According to the pilots’ association, the federal license serves as a national minimum standard
Any foreign ship of 100 tons or more (almost all ocean-going vessels) must use a river pilot or pay a $15,000 fee, about twice the cost of hiring a pilot to take the ship up the river to New Orleans. More, the river is divided into four sections, and pilots designated on one aren’t permitted to pilot on any other or face fines and imprisonment. One estimate has about 230 state river pilots on the Mississippi, out of about 1100 in all inland waterways
The combined ports of South Louisiana, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge form the largest port in the world measured by total cargo tonnage, ahead of Singapore and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Statistics put the ports on the lower Mississippi at New Orleans at 50 percent busier than the next-largest port of Houston and Galveston and more than twice the volume passing through the port of New York and New Jersey
Pilotage on the Mississippi dates to 1837, when rouge river pilots would battle for the right to navigate ocean-going vessels up the river to the Port of New Orleans. A Mississippi river pilot is responsible for guiding ships along the Mississippi River, including across the bar from the Gulf of Mexico, through the shifting sandbars and passages at the mouth, and upriver to New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The Associated Branch Pilots work the first leg, on the lower Mississippi between the Gulf of Mexico and a remote island community in Plaquemines Parish called Pilottown. The Crescent River Port Pilots Association takes ships from Pilottown as far upriver as New Orleans. Ships going any farther are handled by the (state) New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association, and the (federal) Associated Federal Pilots and Docking Masters of Louisiana, pilots who deal strictly with US-flag vessels and operate from Southwest Pass to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the longest transit of the four pilot associations in the river
Each state has its own pilotage statute and regulatory system, rates for pilotage being regulated as well. The typical state pilot is treated as a self-employed professional. Pilots are required to be available at all times and to all ships equally. The state regulatory system seeks to assure that each vessel requiring a pilot receives a trained, competent, well-rested pilot without delay. Pilots in a port or specific waterway area are organized in a pilot association, the association facilitating the joint activities such as billing and collecting and administering the rotation, dispatch, pilot boat, and training operations. Under a 1906 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, a pilot association cannot be held liable for the negligence of one of its members. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, pilots were recruited as a critical component in the safety of U.S. ports and waterborne transportation. Often the only US citizen on a foreign ship moving in US waters, a state or federal pilot is uniquely positioned to notice potentially threatening situations. The typical state-licensed pilot in the U.S. is the most highly trained mariner in the world
This article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper archives, while old, puts the job of the Mississippi River pilot in substantial context, including a good tale of a 1996 river pilot who took over when a poorly-maintained Chinese freighter lost power and smashed into the Riverwalk and the New Orleans Hilton two weeks before Christmas. Though the crew could barely understand him, the pilot managed to steer the broken freighter to the only vacant dock at the downtown wharf, narrowly missing three docked ships crowded with passengers. Sixty-two people were injured and $19 million in damage was dealt, but nobody died https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_d0345bf0-1fbf-5212-ac7e-10a15c7fd716.html
American Petroleum Tankers
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/american-petroleum-tankers
Founded 2006. Operating status: Active
American Petroleum Tankers is a provider of Jones Act marine transportation services for crude oil, condensate, and refined products
Acquired 2013 by Kinder Morgan
Headquarters Plymouth Meeting, PA, USA
10,000+ employees
Headquarters regions: greater Philadelphia area, Great Lakes, Northeastern US
American Petroleum Tankers Parent LLC and its subsidiaries (APT) is a U.S. based provider of Jones Act marine transportation services for refined petroleum products, crude oil and chemicals in the U.S. domestic “coastwise” trade. Our fleet consists of five modern, double-hulled product tankers delivered from the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in 2009 and 2010
Operationally, we retain all strategic and commercial management of our vessels, while the technical management of the vessels is outsourced to certain affiliates of Crowley Maritime Corporation. Crowley’s technical management services include crewing, maintenance and repair, purchasing, insurance and claims administration, and security as well as certain accounting and reporting services
Golden State, delivered in January 2009, is on time charter with BP, trading on the U.S. Gulf Coast; Pelican State, delivered in June 2009, is on time charter with Shell, trading on the U.S. Gulf Coast; and Sunshine State, delivered in December 2009, is on time charter with Chevron, trading on the U.S. Gulf Coast. There are two vessels, Empire State and Evergreen State, delivered in July 2010 and December 2010, respectively, which are in world-wide service with MSC [Mediterranean Shipping Company]
Kinder Morgan is the largest independent terminal operator in North America one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, providing a strong, reliable network of 147 terminals serving customers’ storage, distribution, blending, and logistical needs. Our terminals store and handle renewable fuels, petroleum products, chemicals, vegetable oils and other products.
Kinder Morgan maintains a combined liquids storage capacity of approximately 151 million barrels, handles approximately 59 million tons of dry bulk materials annually, and owns 16 Jones Act product tankers engaged in marine transport of crude oil, condensate and related products
Founded February1997, Houston, by a group of investors led by Executive Chairman Richard D. Kinder and former Vice Chairman William V. Morgan, as Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) by acquiring the general partner of a small, publicly traded pipeline limited partnership (Enron Liquids Pipeline), with an enterprise value of approximately $325 million
The vision of Mr. Kinder and Mr. Morgan was to do something differently in an energy company by utilizing the master limited partnership (MLP) financial structure as a growth vehicle. The untried approach worked, and KMP became the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnership in America based on enterprise value. KMP grew through acquisitions, purchasing logical assets like refined petroleum pipelines, CO2 production fields and transportation pipelines, intrastate natural gas pipelines, and bulk and liquids terminals
Kinder Morgan
1001 Louisiana Street Suite 1000
Houston, Texas 77002 713.369.900
[NYSE KMI]
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) i
[NYSE: GD]
General Dynamics NASSCO traces its beginnings to the industrial heart of San Diego, along the working waterfront of beautiful and historic San Diego Bay. The company has been designing and building ships in San Diego’s industrial corridor since 1960 and is the largest full service shipyard on the West Coast of the United States
The company specializes in the design and construction of auxiliary and support ships for the U.S. Navy, oil tankers, and dry cargo carriers for commercial markets. It is also a major provider of repair services for the U.S. Navy’s global force for good, with capabilities in San Diego, Norfolk, VA; Mayport, Florida and Bremerton, Washington
General Dynamics NASSCO (Falls Church, Virginia) www.generaldynamics.com is one of three shipyards in the Marine Systems group of General Dynamics Corporation, a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies
SHIPYARD CAPABILITIES
NASSCO’s shipyard facilities are capable of building commercial cargo ships and tankers and Navy auxiliary ships up to 1,000 feet in length and servicing or repairing any vessel sailing on the West Coast of the United States
NASSCO’s main shipyard is on San Diego Bay, which has a channel depth of 35 feet. Ships pass under the Coronado Bridge, vertical clearance 195 feet. The shipyard encompasses 80 acres of land and 46 acres of water and offers:
- 2 inclined building ways, 950-feet long and 108-feet wide
- 8 fully serviced berths ranging from 600 to 1,000 feet
- One 1000-foot x 174-foot graving dock with a lift capacity of 30,000 long tons
- 10 whirley/portal cranes with individual lift capacities to 300 tons and multi-crane lifts to 620 tons
- One 820-foot x 136-foot floating drydock with an ABS-certified lift capacity of 44,000 long tons
- 6 production workshops and 10 assembly areas
- 2 blast cells and 5 paint cells for indoor prep and coating hull blocks (52’x52’x30′)
NASSCO
2798 Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92113
(619) 544-3400 (fax) (619) 544-3541
Crowley Maritime - Shipping and Logistics Services
Crowley, founded in 1892, is a privately-held, U.S.-owned and operated logistics, government, marine, and energy solutions company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Services are provided worldwide by four primary business units – Crowley Logistics, Crowley (Government) Solutions, Crowley Shipping and Crowley Fuels
Crowley Logistics: Complete end-to-end supply chain services in the U.S., Caribbean, Central America and beyond
Crowley Government Services: Maritime, supply chain and freight transportation management, expeditionary logistics, technology and energy solutions
Crowley Shipping: Shipping services for maritime and offshore, including design, engineering, construction and operations; petroleum transportation, and ship assist
Crowley Fuels: Transportation, distribution and sales of petroleum products to more than 280 communities throughout Alaska
Mediterranean Shipping Company
A family company operating across five continents
MSC Geneva
41227038888
Email: info@msc.com
S.A.Chemin Rieu 12-14
1208 Geneva Switzerland
Founded 1970, Naples, Italy, by Gianlugi Aponte
Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is a Swiss-Italian international shipping line operating in all major ports of the world. It is the world's second-largest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity. [2014 data:] MSC was operating 471 container vessels with an intake capacity of 2,435,000 twenty-foot containers. It has a division called MSC Cruises that focuses on holiday cruises
For an interesting walk through the world of global family shipping businesses, read here for the world’s ten richest ship owners, starting with Hong Kong’s Li Ka Shing ($31 billion) Fortune 500 Hutchison Wampoa Limited https://www.movehub.com/blog/worlds-richest-ship-owners/
Pasha Hawaii
Aloha and welcome to Pasha Hawaii. Pasha Hawaii offers specialized container, vehicle, and oversize cargo ocean transport between the Mainland and Hawaii
The only competitors in the marketplace are TOTE Incorporated and Matson
Realizing WWII troops needed storage and truckaway services to and from Hawaii, founder George W. Pasha set up a station in San Francisco to accommodate deploying trrops. Consolidated as Pasha Hawaii in 1999, the company specializes in the maritime transport and distribution of shipping containers, automobiles, trucks, trailers, Mafi roll trailers, heavy construction machineries, and other types of static and rolling freight
Pasha roll-on/roll-off vessels include fully enclosed and ventilated decks to protect vehicles and oversize cargo from harsh ocean elements, and wide-open ramps for safe loading and unloading. Pasha has a network of terminals and pick-up/drop-off centers
Pasha Hawaii is a participant in the Regional Domestic Contract for the shipment of military cargoes to and from Hawaii, providing service for all types of U.S. military and all U.S. government agency cargoes. Pasha vessels can accommodate a brigade-sized unit move with all cargo stowed under-deck and safely away from exposure to weather and sea spray. Pasha Hawaii is also CH47 Chinook helicopter capable
Pasha Hawaii operates six ships. The first, the $90 million 579-foot Jean Anne (2004) is a ro-ro (roll on-roll off) carrying specifically and only vehicles (3000), like a giant garage
The 692-foot Marjorie C. (2015) is a con-ro, carrying both vehicles (1200) and containers, which means the ship carries both vehicles and containers [1400 twenty-foot containers (TEUs)]. It sails carrying 30 percent cars, 10 percent oversized items, and 60 percent containers
Two new all container ships come onboard for the West Coast-to-Hawaii trade lane in 2020, the first LNG-powered* vessels on the route, able to carry 2,525 twenty-foot containers. Propulsion systems will be manufactured by MAN Energy Solutions
*LNG is a system that burns fuel and natural gas to create propulsion. Most ships are now switching to LNG-powered systems due to environmental regulations. The LNG system also better accommodates ship-to-ship transfers of fuel
Pasha Hawaii The Pasha Group
Topa Financial Center Global Headquarters
Fort Street Tower 4040 Civic Center Drive, Suite 350
745 Fort Street, Suite 315 San Rafael, CA 94903
Honolulu, HI 96813-3806 (415) 927-6400
(808) 523-8625 www.pashagroup.com
MAN Energy Solutions is a multinational company based in Augsburg, Germany that produces large-bore diesel engines and turbomachinery for marine and stationary applications, as marine propulsion systems, power plant applications and turbochargers. The company was formed in 2010 from the merger of MAN Diesel and MAN Turbo. MAN Energy Solutions is a subsidiary of the Power Engineering business of German carmaker Volkswagen Group. The Danish part of the company was formed out of the Burmeister & Wain ship-building company, and the marketing name for the largest two-stroke engines still has B&W in it
MAN Energy Solutions designs two-stroke and four-stroke engines manufactured both by the company and its licensees. The engines have power outputs ranging from 450 kW to 87 MW. MAN Diesel & Turbo also designs and manufactures gas turbines of up to 50 MW, steam turbines of up to 150 MW and compressors with volume flows of up to 1.5 million m3/h and pressures of up to 1,000 bar. The product range is rounded off by turbochargers, CP propellers, gas engines, and chemical reactors. MAN Diesel & Turbo range of goods includes complete marine propulsion systems, turbomachinery units for the oil and gas and process industries, and turnkey power plants
These medium-speed engines are used on cruise liners, tugs, dredgers or cable-laying ships. Smaller medium-speed four-stroke engines are used in high-speed ferries and naval vessels. The company employs around 14,413 staff (2013) at more than 100 international sites, primarily in Germany, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Italy, India, China, and the U.A.E.
The Dredging Contractors of America (DCA) is a non-profit trade association that has represented the interests of the U.S. dredging and marine construction industry and its members for over 30 years
DCA has established formal partnerships at the highest levels with the Army Corps of Engineers and other government entities, on issues like over-depth dredging, emergency response, funding, contractual policy issues, project estimating, and the environment. DCA is a respected industry partner for its ability to bring together a broad base of industry stakeholders and decision-makers to engage in open forum and continue the discourse concerning policy issues important to the industry as a whole
Founded 1975 as TOTEm Ocean Trailer Express
TOTE Maritime is an owner/operator of domestic shipping in the United States. They specialize in moving cargo between North America to Puerto Rico and Alaska, recently moving into the U.S. West Coast to Hawaii trade
TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico was the owner of El Faro, a large container ship that sank in 2015 after she steamed directly into Hurricane Joaquin in the Bermuda Triangle
The Sea Star Line is a subsidiary of Tote Maritime
TOTE Maritime
10401 Deerwood Park Blvd., Building One, Suite 1300
Gunderson Marine, a division of GBX [Gunderson Greenbrier]
https://www.gbrx.com/home/ [NYSE GBX]
Under the name Gunderson Marine LLC, the Portland, Oregon, plant manufactures ocean-going conventional deck barges, double-hull tank barges, railcar/deck barges, barges for aggregates, and other heavy industrial products and ocean-going dump barges
Gunderson Marine LLC is a division of the Greenbrier Companies, an American publicly-traded transportation manufacturing corporation based in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Greenbrier specializes in transportation services, notably barge and railroad car manufacturing, railroad car refurbishment, and railroad car leasing/management services. From 19th-century roots manufacturing wheels, Greenbrier is a leading provider of wheel services, parts, leasing, and other services to the railroad and related transportation industries in North America
The company has manufacturing facilities in Portland, Oregon, Paragould and Marmaduke, Arkansas; Świdnica, Poland; Hortolândia, Brazil; and Adana, Turkey; three railcar manufacturing plants in Mexico: Monclova, Ciudad Sahagún, and Tlaxcala, and three in Romania: Arad, Caracal, and Drobeta-Turnu Severin
The Greenbrier Companies pioneered in new products: multi-platform articulated spine car sets for TOFC transportation [trailer on flatcar, or ‘piggyback’]. In the 1980s, the company developed Twin-Stack well cars for double-stack rail transport of intermodal containers. The Twin-Stack double-stack car became a vital product with approximately 3,000 being produced per year by 1990
[The Greenbrier Companies dominate in production of railroad cars: both intermodal and conventional freight care produced, including boxcars, center partition cars, and covered hopper cars, including the Tsunami Gate, a railcar with a door and hatch system that permits shippers to customize the discharge speed of grain; double stack cars, flatcars, gondola cars, tank cars, auto racks, and two proprietary automobile carriers, the AutoMax and the Multi-Max]
www.transportationinstitute.org/
Established 1967
The Transportation Institute is a nonprofit maritime-industry watch-dog with a powerful industry lobbying presence in Washington. The Institute mission is to monitor the workings and decisions of the US Congress and federal agencies as they affect waterborne transportation, and to liaison with all congressional offices and federal agencies when maritime issues come up. The Institute is dedicated to maritime research education and promotion. The companies represented by the Institute participate in all phases of the nation’s deep-sea, foreign and domestic shipping trades, and barge and tugboat operations on the Great Lakes and on the thousands of miles of America’s inland waterways
The Transportation Institute provides significant context about the U.S. maritime industry and career opportunities available. The Transportation Institute discusses the U.S. maritime industry in terms of the liner trades and the bulk trades
Liner trades
Liner or berth service is defined as a scheduled operation by a common carrier whose ships operate on a predetermined and fixed itinerary over a given route, at relatively regular intervals, and are advertised considerably before sailing in order to solicit cargo from the public. These common carriers provide transportation on fixed schedules and at rates (tariffs) made electronically available to the public. The liner fleet includes full containerships, partial containerships, lighter aboard ships (LASH), roll on/roll off (Ro/Ros), and barge-carrying vessels. Vessels in the liner trades carry high-value cargo as to its worth and multi-faceted cargo as to its physical description, including packaged goods and refrigerated fruit and vegetables. The U.S.-flag commercial fleet is a worldwide leader in innovative technologies in ocean shipping. Innovations include double-stack trains, seamless cargo tracking, and identification technologies. As of year-end 2013, there were 76 private vessels (containerships, roll-on/roll-off, and general cargo) in the active oceangoing U.S.-flag fleet serving the foreign liner trades
Bulk Trades
The bulk shipping industry’s economic environment is far different. Bulk shipping is much less structured and not organized along schedules but is, in its own way, very disciplined. The bulk trades, mainly oil, chemicals, and dry raw materials, are structured to follow the cargoes. This means that an operator does not have a fixed schedule of sailings for his vessel and will employ it where and when he can get a cargo. Bulk service is generally not provided on a regularly scheduled basis, but rather as needed, on specialized ships transporting a specific commodity. Cargoes are shipped unpackaged either dry, such as grain and ore, or liquid, such as petroleum products
The rate structure is not set in deliberations by a group of operators as they are in a liner conference framework. Rather, the rates are set by dictates of market forces of supply/demand for the commodity and for tonnage. Brokers are the key to making contracts and many contracts are executed over the telephone and by telegraph strictly on the verbal agreement of businessmen. In the bulk trades, bulk operators are contract carriers, either time or voyage chartered by the shipper
Bulk carriers can be divided primarily into two principal types of ownership. The first is the proprietary owner, whose costs may be calculated as part of the corporation’s operating expenses. To minimize those costs the proprietary owner may try to offer his ship for charter on the ballast leg of a voyage. The other type is the privately owned company, which sells its transportation service as the market dictates. Both types are not common carriers but contract carriers which charter ships on a long-term or short-term voyage or other basis. Bulk operations in foreign trade include both dry cargo vessels (grain and coal carriers) and tankers (chemical or petroleum products)
Dry Bulk Fleet
In 2014, there were three dry cargo vessels in the privately owned oceangoing active U.S.-flag fleet serving the foreign trades. These ships are specifically designed to transport vast amounts of cargoes like sugar, grain, ore, coal. Examples of dry bulk vessels include colliers and multipurpose ships or OBOs*
*oil-bulk-ore: Popular in the early 1970s. Designed to function as a tanker and carry oil (wet cargo) one way or when tanker markets were good, and then carry ore or bulk goods (dry cargo) on the return or when dry markets were good, styled that way to reduce the number of voyages a ship had to sail ballast (empty). Fell out of favor because the type required more maintenance than most, and it turned out to be expensive to switch modes. By 2020 the design flaws have been re-structured by the OBO style is still not what it was, the world’s largest fleet [SKS] only sailing ten
Liquid Bulk Fleet
In 2014, there were five liquid bulk vessels (tankers) in the privately owned oceangoing active U.S.-flag fleet serving the foreign trades, operated by the vessel-operating subsidiaries of major oil or other companies, or by independently operated companies. These ships are specifically designed to transport oil and other liquid cargoes. At times, tankers also carry grain. Examples of liquid bulk vessels include tankers, liquid natural gas (LNG), and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) carriers
Vessel Registries
All ships must be registered to one of the nations of the world in order to assign responsibility for violations of international law and convention. A ship registered to a particular nation then falls under the jurisdiction of their nation of registry
There are three categories of flag state registries:
National Registry, the traditional flag states: the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, Japan, and all the rest. Traditional flag states typically have national restrictions in terms of ownership, shipbuilding, crewing and trading, for example, national cabotage laws**
***cabotage: the right to operate air, sea, or other transport within a particular territory, leading hence to the potential restriction of those transport services to that country’s own transport services [see, Jones Act]
Open Registries/Flags of Convenience, vessels registered under the flags of Honduras, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Panama, Liberia, Bahamas, Cyprus, and Malta. Flags of Convenience have few restrictions concerning nationality of crews, where vessels may be financed or constructed, or ownership. Shipping concerns adopted the practice of shopping around for nations under open registry giving them the best deal on taxes, wages and legal restrictions, “conveniently” registering their vessels with these countries
Second Registries [commonly referred to as hybrids], adopting many of the operating characteristics of Open Registries/Flags of Convenience while acting under the appearance of national authority, such as Hong Kong or Singapore
These are Alaska fishing jobs
Fishermen’s Finest manages a fleet of three catcher/processor vessels --- America’s Finest, the U.S. Intrepid, and American No. 1 --- operating in the bottomfish fisheries of the North Pacific and the Bering Sea. Fishermen's Finest's fleet sails from Seattle, corporate headquarters are in Kirkland, Washington, and vessels are docked primarily in Dutch Harbor. Primary areas of operation are the Bering Sea (Ports of Dutch Harbor and Togiak) and the Gulf of Alaska (Ports of Kodiak and Seward)
Fisherman’s’ Finest partners with three sustainable seafood cooperatives: Certified sustainable seafood by MSC.org; Alaska Seafood: Wild Natural Sustainable; and Alaska Seafood Cooperative, Wild Seafood Harvested Responsibly
Species harvested are Alaska plaice, arrowtooth flounder, butter sole, northern rockfish, Pacific cod, Pacific ocean perch, shortraker rockfish, rex sole, rock sole, yellowfin sole, and starry flounder
FishFinest crews ten employees based in Seattle and 130 crew at sea every day. Another 70 or so rotate in on a seasonal basis. FishFinest fishers earn medical, dental, vision, and 401K benefits in addition to salaries, and some have been with the company for decades
Founded 1882, US-owned and operated, based in Honolulu. [NYSE MATX]
Wholly-owned subsidiary Matson Navigation Company provides ocean shipping services across the Pacific to Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Micronesia, the South Pacific, China and Japan
In 1932 Matson acquired the historic Moana Hotel (now part of the Moana Surfrider Hotel) and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki, and was a key player in promoting early tourism to Hawaii
American Maritime Officers Service
700 Pennsylvania Avenue SE Suite 530
Washington DC 20003
Major U.S.-flag vessel operators are represented on Capitol Hill by the American Maritime Officers Service. It’s the mission of the service to protect and promote U.S. cabotage laws, foster a better understanding of the domestic maritime industry, advocate for the industry, and research the issues facilitating the industry
The Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) is the national trade association representing the U.S. shipyard industry. SCA members constitute the industrial base that builds, repairs, services and supplies the U.S. shipyard industry. SCA represents the critical supplier companies foundational for the shipyard industrial base, and provides the necessary equipment, services and engineering for commercial and government shipbuilders and ship repairers
20 F Street Suite 500
Washington, DC 20001, USA
Arcosa
www.arcosa.com [NYSE ACA]
#400 Lincoln Plaza, 500 North Akard Street
Dallas, Texas
Arcosa is a provider of infrastructure-related products and solutions with leading brands serving construction, energy and transportation markets in North America. Financial results are reported in three principal business segments: the Construction Products Group, the Energy Equipment Group, and the Transportation Products Group. Arcosa believes it is well-aligned with key market trends, such as the replacement and growth of aging transportation and energy infrastructure, the continued shift to renewable power generation, and the expansion of downstream energy infrastructure
This is how Arcosa describes its strengths:
CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS: Arcosa has a strong geographic footprint and a product portfolio in aggregates, specialty materials, and construction site support positioned to promote infrastructure growth
ENERGY EQUIPMENT: Arcosa has competitive manufacturing and sourcing advantages to grow in a dynamic energy landscape, building wind towers, utility structures, and storage tanks
TRANSPORTATION PRODUCTS: Market leadership in products critical to transportation infrastructure: barges and marine hardware, rail components, and industrial components
SEACOR Marine Americas Offices
(Corporate Headquarters) 12121 Wickchester Lane Suite 500
Houston, TX 77079
346 980 1700 (fax) 281 589 0255
SEACOR Marine is the name behind some of the most important firsts in the maritime industry: pioneering the use of catamarans in the oilfield, first to utilize “ride control” technology, and the first and only monohull in the industry equipped with a first-class airline style “pod” seating configuration with USB charging ports and LED lighting
SEACOR offers a comprehensive suite of transport support services for offshore wells and windfarm facilities worldwide, that reduce fuel consumption, lower emissions and protect the environment. Services include crew transportation, platform supply, offshore accommodation, maintenance support, anchor handling and mooring capabilities, and liftboats. Included in the SEACOR family of companies are Seabulk (Fort Lauderdale); Island Lines (Fort Lauderdale); Waterman (New York); SCF (St. Louis); Witt O’Brien’s (Washington), and CLEANCOR (New York)
Lake Carriers’ Association
25651 Detroit Road Suite 102
Westlake, OH 44145
440.333.4444
Since 1880, the Lake Carriers’ Association has represented the continuing interests of Great Lakes shipping, promoting the U.S.-flag Great Lakes fleet, moving more than 90 million tons of cargo annually. The cargoes --- iron ore, limestone, coal, cement, salt, sand, and grain --- are the foundation of American industry, infrastructure, and power
Great Lakes cargo generates and sustains 146,500 U.S. jobs in the eight Great Lakes states, with a net annual economic impact to the U.S. economy exceeding $25.6 billion. The Lake Carriers’ Association advocates for 11 member companies operating 46 commercial cargo vessels on the Great Lakes. Membership in LCA is open to owners/operators of Great Lakes-licensed, self-propelled vessels (including tug/barge units) whose principal marine business is the transportation of cargo and whose vessels are subject to inspection by the U. S. Coast Guard under federal regulations
Three major issues on the Great Lakes are key to the Lake Carriers Association:
Icebreaking: More than $1 billion in revenue is sacrificed due to winter delays resulting from inadequate icebreaking. The Lake Carriers’ Association continues to voice concerns over the need for U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards to put more icebreaking resources in the Great Lakes and repower their current aging assets to ensure they can continue to break ice and promote economic activity
Dredging: It’s estimated that 13.5 million cubic yards of sediment clog the Great Lakes System due to inadequate funding. This man-made crisis of overbearing sediment results in lower carrying capacities for vessels, especially during low water level shipping seasons. The Lake Carriers’ Association proposes that the surplus of funds given to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) from taxed cargo would leave $9.5 billion that could be used towards dredging
The Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 set a new course, one, that if followed, will end the dredging crisis on the Lakes. By using that estimated $9.5 billion surplus of funds given to the HMTF from taxed cargo for dredging, the issue could be completely eliminated. The legislation requires the federal government to incrementally increase expenditures from the HMTF until they reach 100 percent in 2025. Funds will be distributed to the Great Lakes as a system, not individual ports, completely eliminating the need for ports to compete against one another for funding.
The Soo Locks are the lynchpin for the Great Lakes and play a critical role in the national defense of the United States. Roughly 7,000 vessels pass through the Locks each year, hauling an estimated 86 million tons of cargo to industries in the U.S. and Canada. The Locks support more than 123,000 jobs in the U.S. and Canada and $22.6 billion in economic activity in the U.S. Each year, about 76 million tons of cargo transit the Soo Locks. The locks lift and lower vessels as they traverse a 21-foot drop in elevation from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, granting access to the lower lakes
Kirby Corporation
Corporate Headquarters 55 Waugh Drive, Suite 1000 Houston, Texas 77007
` (713) 435-1000
(713) 435-1010
Kirby Corporation is the premier tank barge operator in the United States, transporting bulk liquid products throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, along all three U.S. Coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii. Through its Distribution and Services segment, Kirby is also a leading nationwide service provider and distributor of diesel engines, transmissions, parts, industrial equipment and oilfield service equipment
Marine Transportation: Kirby operates the largest inland and offshore tank barge fleets in the United States. Kirby’s industry-leading fleet of inland tank barges transport bulk liquid cargoes, including petrochemicals, black oil, refined products, and agricultural chemicals for customers on the Mississippi River, its tributaries, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Kirby Offshore Marine transports refined products, black oil, petrochemicals, and dry bulk products including sugar and coal, along the U.S. coastal network including the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, as well as Alaska, Hawaii and the Great Lakes
Distribution and Services: Kirby is a leading distributor and services provider to industrial markets, offering customers a single source for after-market service and parts for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, and related equipment used in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway, and other industrial applications. Kirby is a distributor and service provider for high-speed diesel engines, transmissions, and pumps in the oil and gas markets, and manufactures and remanufactures oilfield service equipment, including pressure pumping units. In marine and power generation applications, Kirby provides after-market service for medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines, reduction gears and ancillary products
2005: 35,498 members, the largest labor maritime organization in the United States
The Seafarers International Union [SIU]is an organization of 12 autonomous labor unions of mariners, fishermen, and boatmen working aboard vessels flagged in the United States or Canada. Organizers founded the union on October 14, 1938. The Seafarers International Union arose from a charter issued to the Sailors Union of the Pacific by the American Federation of Labor as a foil against loss of jobs to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
Today the SIU represents mariners and boatmen who sail aboard U.S.-flagged vessels in deep sea, the Great Lakes, and inland waterways. Membership includes workers in the deck, steward, and engine departments. SIU members are represented aboard a wide variety of vessels, including: military support, commercial trade, tugboats, passenger ships, barges, and gaming vessels. Military support vessels operated by the U.S. Department of Defense Military Sealift Command (MSC) provide a key source of jobs for seafarers. MSC operates some 110 noncombat ships that support U.S. forces around the world. SIU membership includes eligibility for access to healthcare, retirement, and education benefits.
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is an American maritime classification society established in 1862. Its stated mission is to promote the security of life, property, and the natural environment, primarily through the development and verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine and offshore assets
ABS' core business is to provide global classification services to the marine, offshore and gas industries. As of 2015, ABS was the second largest class society with a classed fleet of over 12,000 commercial vessels and offshore facilities. ABS develops its standards and technical specifications, known collectively as the ABS Rules and Guides. These Rules form the basis for assessing the design and construction of new vessels and the integrity of existing vessels and marine structures
The Maritime Security Program maintains a fleet of commercially viable, militarily useful, privately owned, merchant ships active in international trade. The MSP fleet is available to support U.S. Department of Defense sustainment sealift requirements during times of conflict or national emergencies, and to maintain a United States presence in international commercial shipping. The program provides DoD access to MSP participants’ global intermodal transportation network of terminals, facilities, logistic management services, and U.S. citizen merchant mariners.
Established by the Clinton administration as part of the Maritime Security Act of 1996. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 (S. 1790) authorized extensions of existing operating agreements through September 30, 2035. Vessels (60) participate under a set number of operating agreements and receive a retainer incentive in exchange. Maritime Security Program vessels must be U.S.-registered and must make their ships and commercial transportation resources available upon request by the Secretary of Defense
Maritime-industry companies participating in the Maritime Security Program:
- American International Shipping, LLC
- APL Marine Services Ltd.
- Argent Marine Operations, Inc.
- Central Gulf Lines, Inc.
- Farrell Lines Inc.
- Fidelio Limited Partnership
- Hapag-Lloyd USA, LLC
- Liberty Global Logistics, LLC
- Maersk Line, Limited
- Mykonas Tanker LLC
- Patriot Shipping LLC
- Santorini Tanker LLC
- Waterman Steamship Corporation