Second MARAD Training Ship Patriot State Completes Sea Trials

The program creating a new fleet of modern training ships for the U.S. Merchant Marine marked its next key milestone today, August 28, with reports that the second MARAD vessel completed its sea trials. The Patriot State, which will be assigned to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, returned to Philly Shipyard reports construction manager TOTE Services. 

The second ship of the class is due for delivery to MARAD this year and will be closely followed by the third vessel, State of Maine, which was launched in April 2024 and is currently fitting out. In June, Philly Shipyard highlighted the placement of the first of the two motors for the fourth vessel, Lone Star State. Each of the ships has two 4,500 kW motors driving a single shaft with a total of 9,000 kW. Work on the fifth and final vessel, Golden State, is also getting underway with the vessel for Texas scheduled for delivery in 2025 and for California in 2026.

“We’ve reached a historic milestone with the sea trials of the second NSMV, Patriot State, that will be used to train future cadets at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy,” said TOTE Services President Jeff Dixon. “We’re grateful for the widespread, bipartisan support the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel program has received to help make this significant investment in the U.S. maritime industry possible.”

The U.S. Maritime Administration hired TOTE Services in 2019 to oversee the construction project. The company was named Vessel Construction Manager, the first time the government used this approach for a newbuild program. TOTE selected Philly Shipyard and is managing the project for MARAD.

The five vessels are unique as they are the first custom-designed and built training ships for the U.S. state maritime academies which traditionally used obsolete commercial ships. Known as Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMV), each of the ships is approximately 8,500 dwt and 525 feet (160 meters) in length. They have total accommodations for up to 760 people and provide numerous instruction spaces, a full training bridge, RoRo capabilities, and modern equipment for the training program. They are also designed to support humanitarian and disaster relief missions in times of need with the capability to carry cargo and are outfitted with a helicopter landing area.

The first of the ships, Empire State for the SUNY (New York) Maritime College was delivered to MARAD by Philly Shipyard and TOTE Service on September 8, 2023. The vessel arrived at its homeport at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx and in January 2024 conducted its first training cruise. The ship carried 230 cadets and 100 crew, faculty, and staff for a trip that lasted most of January. Empire State sailed from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its return was briefly delayed by bad weather and a mechanical problem with one of the two propulsion drives.

The first full training cruise for Empire State departed in June 2024 and she made stops in Port Canaveral, Florida and Nassau in the Bahamas. However, at the beginning of July, as she was sailing toward Portsmouth in the UK, she experienced a problem with the redundant fuel system including her fuel oil purifiers. The ship was able to maintain operation without a loss of propulsion but the decision was made to remain in U.S. waters so that the construction manager, shipyard, and original equipment manufacturer could troubleshoot the problem and provide maintenance repair support.

The training cruise was completed at the beginning of August with SUNY Maritime College reporting Empire State had covered more than 10,000 nautical miles. The ship returned with 466 cadets as well as 31 legacy students and its teachers and staff. It spent a total of 51 days at sea.

Massachusetts Maritime completed the final training voyage of its 1967-built training ship Kennedy which was recently transferred as an interim replacement to Texas A&M Maritime Academy until its new training ship is delivered in 2025. Maine Maritime also completed the last training cruise of its 1990-built State of Maine and is awaiting the delivery of its new training ship. The ships represent a significant advancement for training in the U.S. Merchant Marine.