Longtime Maine Maritime training ship makes final voyage

The training ship used by Maine Maritime Academy for nearly three decades made its last official departure from Castine on Wednesday morning, embarking on a 74-day training trip around the northern Atlantic Ocean.

After this spring, MMA will replace the State of Maine with a bigger new training vessel that’s been under construction in Philadelphia.

In an annual ritual, a crowd of school and local officials gathered with families and residents on Wednesday to send-off the State of Maine, before it departed Castine Harbor around 11:30 a.m., according to a press release.

This year’s training cruise will take 202 students, along with 45 staff and crew, down the east coast to Port Everglades, Florida, then make a stop in the Virgin Islands before crossing the ocean to Spain and Portugal. It’ll then cross back to Newfoundland and Labrador, before returning to Maine.

In partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the school will also deploy six research devices known as Argo floats along the way to help collect hydrographic data.

The State of Maine first came to Castine in 1997 and will be returned to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s maritime division after this final training cruise. Originally built as an oceanographic research vessel and named the USNS Tanner, it has completed 30 training voyages for MMA.

“An entire generation of MMA students have had the pleasure of training aboard this vessel,” said MMA President Jerry Paul. “She safely stewarded more than a quarter of a century of young mariners to ports all over the world.”

The school’s future $320 million ship will be roughly 24 feet longer and 16 feet wider than the State of Maine. It will also be owned by the federal Maritime Administration while it’s used by MMA.