First Maritime Academy News

Dynamically Positioned for the Future, the Texas A&M Maritime Academy takes its place among our 2019 MN100 best of industry winners. It's 'no accident' that today's early adoption of DP curriculum puts the school and its students front and center when it comes time to man tomorrow's futuristic offshore energy support tonnage.Late last year, the Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority (OSVDPA) announced that the Texas A&M Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University at Galveston was now the first maritime academy in the nation accredited to provide OSVDPA courses to its cadets.

OSVDPA accredits Texas A&M Maritime Academy to provide dynamic positioning (DP) training to its cadets.In early September, the Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority (OSVDPA) announced that the Texas A&M Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University at Galveston was now the first maritime academy in the nation accredited to provide OSVDPA courses to its cadets. For any U.S. maritime academy, most if not all of them traditionally focused on sending out graduates ready for blue water, deep water service, this represents a sea change in training. On the other hand, what better place to start than the U.S. academy closest in proximity to the heart of the domestic offshore energy industry…

A&M becomes first U.S. Maritime Academy to teach accredited DP courses.The Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority (OSVDPA) has announced that Texas A&M Maritime Academy (TAMMA) is accredited to provide OSVDPA courses to its cadets. TAMMA, in Galveston, Texas, is the first Maritime Academy in the United States to be accredited by a dynamic positioning operator (DPO) certification body.In announcing the accreditation, OSVDPA Executive Director, Aaron Smith, said, “The OSVDPA Board of Directors and our staff are very excited to issue this accreditation. Going in to the accreditation process we obviously knew of A&M’s reputation as a great maritime training institution, but they surpassed even those lofty expectations.

In 1912, following several financially difficult years for the New York Nautical School, America’s first Maritime Academy, founded 1874, the New York City Board of Education, the school's steward since its inception, had had enough and decided to throw in the towel. The Board of Education moved to petition the New York State Government for permission to abandon its unusual school and return the training ship, the auxiliary sailing gunboat, USS Newport, to the Navy. Consequently, at the beginning of 1913, the school’s Alumni Association, which had been in existence for ten years, stepped in. A coalition of interests supporting the school was assembled by the Alumni Association.