More than 500 students at Massachusetts Maritime Academy are getting ready this week for the first-ever Sea Term aboard the school’s new training ship, the Patriot State.
Built specifically for training, the Patriot State replaces Mass Maritime’s previous training ship, the Kennedy, which was a converted cargo vessel built in 1967.
The ship is abuzz with preparations for Saturday’s departure. Students have spent much of the week loading supplies and equipment for the voyage, including five tractor-trailer loads of food.
Sophomores and freshmen used pallet jacks to bring the pallets of marinara sauce, mashed and fresh potatoes, “buttery spread,” and all manner of provisions on board.
On the ship’s bridge, Mass Maritime senior Jacob Thorpe said the first training exercise will take place off Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
“Seniors will be up on the bridge, and they have an anchoring assessment,” he said. “So they'll have to come in through the anchorage, drop the anchor in a specific location, make sure the ship's all fetched up on the anchor and that we're not going to be dragging anchor anywhere.”
The six-week voyage will make stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Tampa, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina. The ship will return in late February.
Unlike the old ship, the Patriot State has a second navigational bridge specifically for training, said Training Ship Commander Andrew Fusco, a Mass Maritime senior from Wrentham. That means the main bridge will be less crowded, creating a more realistic setting for students there, while others receive training on the second bridge, one level below.
“Our main goal this year for Sea Term is to have it as much like the real world as possible,” he said.
If needed in an emergency, control of the ship can be shifted to the training bridge.
“It’s going to be used for simulation type purposes when we're underway,” he said. “We do have the capability, if something went wrong on the actual bridge, we can turn over control and we can run everything from the training bridge, which is really cool.”
Five hundred forty students will make the trip, along with roughly 100 crew and staff.
Patriot State is one of five new training ships, called National Security Multi-Mission Vessels, or NSMVs, commissioned for academies around the country by the U.S. Marine Administration.
In addition to their training mission, the ships are equipped to assist with federal disaster relief if called to do so.
The public is welcome to see the ship off, this Saturday, at slack tide, around 6:54 a.m., from the campus on Academy Drive in Bourne.
