Marine Transportation Department News

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.

After 10 years at the helm, Harry Bolton handed over command of the Training Ship Golden Bear Wednesday at California State University Maritime Academy.Bolton, a 1978 graduate of the Academy, returned to Cal Maritime on May 1, 2008 after a 30-year career with American Maritime Officers. Twenty of those years were with American Overseas Marine Corporation (AMSEA) aboard the original preposition ships based out of Guam, Saipan and Diego Garcia. Bolton began sailing as Master in 1985, only seven years after graduation.Dr.

Are we that far away from phantom fully autonomous vessels plying the world’s seas? Not according to many in the know. Many predict by 2020 that we will see this type of ship with a limited crew in smaller applications such as the marine highway short haul scenarios, local ferry service such as the Staten Island ferry and offshore supply boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Phantom/drone unmanned ships reportedly would be safer, cheaper and less polluting for an industry that carries approximately 90 percent of the world trade. However as with aircraft drones and on the horizon driverless auto’s, we must be concerned with regulatory and safety issues.

Baltimore-headquartered marine transportation provider The Vane Brothers Company has taken delivery of the Fort Schuyler, the latest Maryland-built tugboat to join the company’s fleet. Fort Schuyler is the 11th Sassafras Class tugboat contracted by Vane Brothers through Chesapeake Shipbuilding of Salisbury, Md. The Fort Schuyler’s sister tug, the Kings Point, was delivered in April 2015. According to Vane Brothers President C. Duff Hughes, “Working alongside another Maryland-based…

The directors of SHIPPINGInsight today announced that U.S. Merchant Marine Academy professor Capt. David Moskoff has agreed to be a special guest speaker at the 2015 Fleet Optimization Conference & Exhibition. The annual event takes place Oct. 13-14, at the Marriott Hotel & Spa in Stamford, Conn. A special area of focus for this year’s SHIPPINGInsight event is ship telematics, and Capt. Moskoff, an acclaimed expert on cyber security in the maritime industry, will kick-off a roundtable Oct. Capt. Moskoff is a professor in the Marine Transportation Department - Nautical Sciences at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. A recognized expert in maritime cyber security…

The U.S. Executive Branch has declared that the cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, and that America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on effective cyber security. Before the maritime industry sounds the danger signal, it needs to monitor other industries and branches of the government and take proactive preventative measures. There is no better place to prepare future and current mariners for these challenges than in maritime simulators.

Originally developed to guide Allied convoys safely across the Atlantic, the use of synchronized low frequency radio signals as a navigational aid revolutionized modern maritime navigation in the 1940s. Faced with operating ships and aircraft over vast areas, researchers pioneered the use of radio signals to aid navigation in regions where poor weather conditions made traditional methods—such as dead reckoning and celestial navigation—exceptionally difficult. This system was eventually named LORAN.

The Vane Brothers Company, a marine transportation provider headquartered in Baltimore, has taken delivery of Kings Point, the latest in a wave of Maryland-built tugboats. Constructed under the supervision of Vane Senior Port Captain Jim Demske, Kings Point is the 10th of 14 “Sassafras Class” tugboats contracted by Vane Brothers through Chesapeake Shipbuilding of Salisbury, Maryland. Kings Point also has a sister tug, Fort Schuyler, that was launched by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in April and is expected to be delivered this summer.

Government and non-government entities working in the maritime sector of Dubai and associated with it, are reaching the final stages of the development of a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind maritime sector strategy (MSS) for the Emirate. The MSS will help Dubai lay the foundation for the creation of a sustainable and competitive maritime offering that will position Dubai at par with world leading maritime centers. In a meeting that was held recently at the headquarters of Dubai Maritime City Authority by representatives from the strategy development teams involved in the project…

Capt. Paul Leyda and crewmembers of the California Maritime Academy’s Training Ship Golden Bear (TSGB) have been honored with the 2008 Mary Patten Valiant Ship Award and Commendation for Bravery and Outstanding Seamanship. The honor, given by the Women’s Propeller Club of the United States, was awarded in recognition of the actions of the Captain and crew in an August 2008 rescue of two fishermen adrift in a small power boat some 80 miles off the coast of Monterey, Ca. When the single engine on the boat failed, the men managed to radio the Coast Guard.