Students on the back deck of the Empire State VII preparing for this year’s summer voyage. They will head to Charleston, SC, Málaga, Spain and Belfast, Northern Ireland before returning to New York.
SUNY Maritime College
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SUNY Maritime College
The gangway to Empire State VII slopes down from the docks of Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, where the East River meets Long Island Sound. The ship is huge – 530 feet, nine decks – and is being prepared for its annual summer teaching cruise.
Tom Murphy, SUNY Maritime College Chief of Staff and a 1993 alumnus, has spent a lot of time on ships at sea. But this is different. “This is the first ship deliberately designed for training cadets,” he said. “It’s not just a working ship, it’s a school on the water.”
SUNY Maritime is one of six state-run maritime academies in the country. Most are run like quasi-military academies. Students wear uniforms, follow set schedules, and learn through a curriculum that blends traditional engineering and seamanship coursework with Coast Guard-required licensing classes students need to work aboard ships.
“Each student is required to do three summer marine sessions to accumulate their 360 days of marine time,” Murphy explained, which is required to sit for the license. A U.S. Coast Guard license can open the door to lucrative careers in the maritime industry, and right now, there aren’t nearly enough people in the country to hold one.
Most students pursue one of two tracks. Leads to the areas that run a ship’s systems and engine room. The second focuses on seamanship and maritime navigation. Work opportunities are wide and varied; From cargo ships to oil tankers, from private sector to government work supplying ships to the US Navy.
Without enough sailors, Navy ships could dry up in a matter of days
Industry groups say there are about 8,000 open positions in the U.S. maritime sector. More than 5,000 are with the Military Sealift Command, the federal agency responsible for keeping Navy ships loaded with fuel, food and ammunition in waters around the world. Without adequate supply ships operating in the Persian Gulf, some Navy ships near the Strait of Hormuz could exhaust their provisions in as little as five days.
John Okon, president of SUNY Maritime and a 1991 graduate, puts it bluntly. “The Navy does not have a global reach, our national defense does not have a global reach without the logistics supply chain, which is our merchant marine,” the retired U.S. Navy admiral said from his office inside Fort Schuyler.
Empire State VII, the first training ship of its kind, is docked at SUNY Maritime College near the Thornsnake Bridge in the Bronx.
Steve Kastenbaum/NPR
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SUNY Maritime College and other state-run maritime academies are trying to fill that gap. School asks a lot of its students. They take 18 to 24 credits a semester, and grind through a course load that SUNY cadets describe as a double major: traditional engineering or operations classes on top of all the Coast Guard-required licensing coursework.
“Our kids graduate highly educated, focused,” Okon said. “When they graduate, their biggest problem is how are they going to manage the money they’re making and the opportunities they’re going to get?” Starting salaries for entry-level executives are running more than $100,000.
The long expanse of sea is getting closer and closer to conflict
The need to staff ships supplying the U.S. Navy’s warships is so urgent, Military Sealift Command is offering a signing bonus of up to $54,000 and a starting salary that could exceed $170,000 for a three-year contract. But those ships can sometimes last for months and go to conflict areas. Videos posted on social media of missiles flying over the Persian Gulf show the inherent risks of working with the Navy during the Iran war.
Graduating senior Finn Mahan said the additional funding is attracting students who want to serve their country in a civic role while fulfilling an important need. “It also makes us a heavier target,” he said, “because the enemy also knows how valuable and how important these supply ships are to our active-duty Navy ships.”
SUNY Maritime College seniors participate in commencement ceremonies at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, NY
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Facing a shortage of merchant mariners, the Trump administration unveiled the Maritime Action Plan in February. The goal is to grow the pipeline of licensed boaters to meet that need. Admiral Okon framed the stakes in a context that goes beyond the current graduating class and the conflict with Iran. He said, “Name something you went to buy at a store, or that miraculously appeared via an Amazon truck. Just know that there are an army of sailors on ships carrying those goods around the world.”
Maxwell Capela is part of that army. He graduated from SUNY Maritime last year and recently completed a four-month tour as a third assistant engineer on a ship under a federal contract, but not part of the Military Sea Lift Command. (He is not at liberty to discuss the ship’s operations.) He and a crew of five others managed the engine room and all mechanical systems. “We are like the heart of the ship,” Capela said.
The lure of a $50,000 signing bonus wasn’t enough to lure him away from the short cruises, 24/7 Internet access and other perks that came with the job. He had almost no expenses during his stay at sea. “You don’t have to drive to work. You don’t have to cook your own food, there’s no rent,” the 22-year-old said. Regardless of the ship’s purpose, the work below decks is the same – 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 7 days a week without interruption, even on holidays.
Empire State VII will set sail this summer with hundreds of cadets who will spend time at sea toward their Coast Guard licenses, getting closer to the moment when they must decide what type of sailor they want to be, and where they are willing to go.
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