Cruises Onboard Training
Vessel State of Maine
Training cruises onboard
the T.S. State of Maine
are scheduled annually for at least 60 days.
Students in the MET, MEO, and MSE curricula are required to participate in these
training cruises during the first and junior years. Successful completion of
these training cruises, including a sea project for each cruise, is required for
graduation. Four credit hours are awarded for each successfully completed
cruise. Cruises aboard the T.S. State of Maine are designed to develop
practical skills required of a third assistant engineer. These
skills are developed through watch standing and experience in the operation and
maintenance of the ship.
During each cruise, the
cadets spend their time divided (roughly) equally between watchstanding,
training, and maintenance. Additionally, during their first (freshman)
cruise, cadets will have their time split between deck and
engineering, in order to give them an appreciation of the interrelationships
between these two key departments onboard ship. The objective of these
cruises is to acquaint cadets with not only the work routine they will encounter
after graduation, but also to familiarize them with the more general aspects of
the unforgiving environment of life at sea.
Since acquiring the
current training vessel, the ship's training cruises (normally held from early
May to early July) have included the following voyages:
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1997: The Caribbean
(Puerto Rico, Norfolk, Halifax, Bermuda, Portland) |
|
1998: Northern
Europe (Russia, Iceland, Estonia, Germany, Portsmouth) |
|
1999:
Mediterranean (Palma, Gibraltar, Italy, France) |
|
2000: The
Caribbean (Barbados, Philadelphia, Bermuda, Ft. Lauderdale, Rockland) |
| 2001: The
Caribbean (Brazil, Galveston, San Juan, NYC) |
| 2002: Portsmouth, England; Cobh, Ireland; Talinn,
Estonia; Kiel, Germany; Portland, Maine |
| 2003: Norfolk, VA; Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary
islands; Antwerp, Belgium. |
|
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History of the Training
Vessel State of Maine
The USNS Tanner TAGS-40 was built
for the Navy as a fast Oceanographic Research Vessel by Bethlehem Steel
Corporation at its Sparrows Point yard in Maryland in 1990. The vessel was the
second oceanographic research ship to bear the name Zero Luther
"Tanner" a noted Oceanographer and inventor of a patented sounding
machine. The vessel experienced an engine casualty in 1993 and was laid up by
the Navy and ownership transferred to the Maritime Administration. She lay idle
in the James River Reserve Fleet until 1996 when she began a conversion process
which removed her underwater sonar domes and equipment. The (2) two original
engines were removed and a new "unique" power plant was installed,
making her into a sophisticated high tech teaching platform for her mission of
training men and women for careers as licensed officers in the Merchant Marine.
The vessel was modified to increase the accommodations from 108 to 302 persons.
New lifesaving equipment and upgrades to existing equipment were accomplished as
well as enhancements to the habitability requirements of the vessel. She was
delivered to Maine Maritime Academy on 10 June 1997 and sailed on her maiden
training cruise the following week.
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