Days after classes at Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) had begun for the semester, the U.S. Maritime Administration activated the academy’s Training Ship STATE OF MAINE to respond to the crisis in the New Orleans area.
According to MMA president Leonard H. Tyler, the Maritime Administration ordered the federally-owned vessel, on permanent loan to the academy, to prepare to set sail Sept. 8 for the Gulf of Mexico, where it would be used for an anticipated 60 days to provide emergency housing for 200 workers repairing an oil refinery damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The activation followed an inquiry regarding the impact such a deployment would have on the school. The training vessel housed 69 first-year students, which would exacerbate already tight student housing. School administrators and heads of departments would have to hire people to teach the courses normally handled by the ten professional seafaring officers making the trip. They would also have to hire additional licensed ship’s officers and non-licensed staff to round out the crew and to replace some of the school’s dining services team making the trip. Nevertheless, Tyler assured the Maritime Administration, “any inconvenience to our students and staff pales in comparison to the human suffering and nationwide ramifications of this disaster. We’re happy to do our part, no matter how small.”
That said, the various heads of departments went into action. Student housing and food services faced the most acute problems from the point of view of time. Sixty-nine freshmen had to be moved from the training ship to the dormitory. Most of those who had private rooms lost their privacy as they took on a roommate.
Dean of Student Services Deidra Davis, who oversees Residential Life, said, “55 percent of the students are in the regiment; the other 45 percent are traditional college students. Those two lifestyles do not share rooms, so the students coming off the ship, could only be consolidated with regimental students.” Nevertheless, the consolidation was accomplished in 48 hours.
So was two months’ worth of food, chemicals, and menu planning for the STATE OF MAINE by Operations Manager and Chief Steward Omar Chaar.
MMA’s Food Services Director Rick Marshall, in a phone interview, called Chaar his “right-hand man” and said that Chaar, two lead cooks, and the snack bar supervisor would manage food service on board during the vessel’s deployment. It means that for the 60-day period Marshall will lose the services of these “four very key members” of his food service team. By sending Chaar, Marshall said, he will be protecting the ship’s galley, explaining, “Our main concern here is taking care of the students. That training cruise that they take in May and June is vital to their careers.” By having all the galley equipment returned to Castine in the condition in which it left would put the dining services team that much ahead of the game in preparation for the cruise.
To get that ship ready to leave for New Orleans with the proper supplies of food, dishwasher and laundry detergents and chemicals for sanitizing all the equipment for 60 days, Marshall said Chaar “Basically did two months’ worth of planning and menu engineering in literally two days’ time.” When asked if Chaar got any sleep, Marshall replied, “No. He may have passed out for a minute, but he had no time for sleep.”
Marshall explained, “There is a lot of time and effort that gets put into making sure that our students are going to be well taken care of on the training cruise. Omar didn’t have that time to make sure that we are going to take care of the people down there, the folks using the ship. How he got it done, I really don’t know.”
Meanwhile, back in Castine, Marshall has had to hire help to fill in for those staff members on the ship. As he said, his primary concern is for the well-being of the students: “The expectation hasn’t changed at all for our customers.” The students probably have no idea what has been going on back stage, so to speak, and Marshall said his goal is that the students can’t tell that his team — 32 full-time employees and a number of part-time student employees — is working at a disadvantage.
The four faculty members who make up part of the crew that runs the ship also teach in the Engineering Department. The ship’s deployment left their classes uncovered. Teachers had to be hired to fill ten different classes. Some meet only once a week, others up to three times a week. Academic Dean John Barlow said, “Other engineers on the faculty have stepped forward and taken over their loads while adding to their own loads.”
“It was an issue we had to work through,” Barlow said. “We resolved it. We felt we had to do this, and it was an opportunity to support some of the efforts down in the Gulf. People were inconvenienced, but I think they take that in stride. It’s very minor, relative to what other people are going through.”
Professor Sam Teel heads up the Marine Transportation Department. His department teaches future mates and ships’ captains. The biggest effect of not having the ship available is on the freshman class. The entire class does safety training: learning how to launch and work with lifeboats and practice firefighting methods. With the ship not there to work with, the net result was 28 hours of training Teel and his faculty members had to “work around,” not to mention having to hire people to teach courses that faculty on board ordinarily handle. Some classes could be postponed, but others needed to be started right away. Teel said, “We certainly did some scrambling,” but he was able to hire some recent graduates who’d stayed in Castine to work on their Master’s degrees.
As for coping with missing lifeboats, “I had mothballed a quarter size lifeboat training model a number of years ago,” Teel said. “We are refurbishing it and tightening it up.” He added, “The students will also get actual lifeboat launching practice on the cruise.
Because the U.S. Coast Guard is the oversight body for MMA’s training, Teel said he has been in touch with the Coast Guard’s Boston Regional Examination Center to let them know that this is the way he is having to do lifeboat training. Because it is a time of national crisis, the Coast Guard agreed to accept Teel’s method. He added, “We are doing similar adjustments to training that we’d normally do on board.”
And on board, Capt. Laurence Wade, Master of STATE OF MAINE, who ordinarily would be teaching in Teel’s department, wrote on the ship’s website, “Our efforts in support of the activation by Secretary [of Transportation Norman] Mineta are relentless and it is our sincere hope that we can make a difference by helping restore a semblance of normalcy to the area and our country.”