MMA to welcome new training ship

Local officials have planned a range of activities for the July 12 homecoming celebration

The NSMV State of Maine is one of five new training vessels that have been purpose-built by the federal Maritime Administration. Photo courtesy of Maine Maritime Academy.

July 7, 2026

By Steele Hays

CASTINE—Maine Maritime Academy’s new training ship, the NSMV State of Maine, is scheduled to arrive in its permanent home port for the first time on July 12, launching a new era for the academy and its students. 

Even before its arrival, the new ship—a national security multi-mission vessel—has been a catalyst for dramatic changes in Castine: Primarily, the construction of a $100 million pier on steel pilings designed to support the new vessel, which is twice the tonnage of the previous training ship, as well as 25 feet longer and 16 feet wider. The new pier, which is still under construction, is four feet higher and extends 140 feet further from shore than its predecessor. 

MMA officially took delivery of the $330-million NSMV State of Maine on March 30 in Portland. On May 3, students boarded the ship there for the start of an 11-week summer training cruise, which took them south to Galveston, Texas, Charleston, South Carolina, and Port Everglades, Florida, and then north to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. A contingent of students from Texas A&M Maritime Academy joined the MMA students for a portion of the voyage.

MMA’s new training ship will also serve as emergency response vessel during national emergencies, and has a capacity of up to 1,000 personnel in times of disaster relief. Image by The Rising Tide.

MMA and the Town of Castine have planned a range of activities for the homecoming celebration, starting at 2 p.m., including a tug and boat parade, a knot-tying station, refreshments and snacks, cornhole and other outdoor games and a special viewing area for taking photos as the ship approaches. The public is invited. 

For those who can’t attend in person, the event will be livestreamed on MMA’s YouTube channel.

The new vessel is the academy’s fifth primary training ship, but it’s the first that was specifically designed as a training ship. Previous ships were all originally built for other purposes and later retrofitted to serve as training vessels. The NSMV State of Maine has eight classrooms, labs, a training bridge, an auditorium, a helipad and a 600-seat auditorium. All five of MMA’s training ships have borne the name State of Maine.

During the delivery ceremony in Portland, academy president Craig Johnson said that the ship “will provide world-class learning experiences for cadets pursuing unlimited tonnage licenses,” and that it will be “a game-changer for [MMA’s] mission.”

The NSMV program is led by MARAD, with vessels constructed by Hanwha Philly Shipyard; TOTE Services serves as construction manager. Image courtesy of the U.S. Maritime Administration.

The NSMV State of Maine is one of five sister ships built to the same design specifications as part of a program managed by the federal Maritime Administration and authorized by Congress, beginning in 2015. The program authorized and funded construction of the national security multi-mission vessels to serve multiple purposes—to train licensed mariners for the U.S. merchant fleet and to serve as emergency response vessels in case of national emergencies. In addition to MMA, the federal government is providing the ships to these state training academies: California Poly State University Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California; Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts; State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx, New York; and Texas A&M Maritime Academy in Galveston, Texas. 

The NSMV State of Maine is the third ship in the group to be completed and delivered for service. The final two are currently under construction.

Even though the ship will begin using the new pier in Castine this year, work on the pier will continue into next year. The final phase of construction, which will work inward from the pier to the shore, is scheduled to be completed in mid-2027.