Maritime agency to assess training ship problems

CASTINE – The U.S. Maritime Administration will investigate the cause of engine problems that have plagued Maine Maritime Academy’s training ship, State of Maine, since the agency assigned the vessel to the school in 1997.

MARAD, which owns the ship, has appointed a review committee that will sift through operational and maintenance records dating back to the ship’s conversion from the U.S. Navy survey ship Tanner, according to Erhard Koehler, MARAD manager of direct programs, who oversees the ships at six state maritime academies.

The Tanner was built in 1990, but the Navy scrapped the ship after an engine malfunctioned in 1993. The Navy transferred ownership to MARAD, which opted to refit the vessel as a maritime training ship. The original engines were removed during the $12 million conversion and a new power plant, including a rebuilt German MaK engine, was installed.

“One of our objectives will be to determine, ‘Did we get what we paid for?”‘ Koehler said Thursday. “‘Did we get all the contract said we were going to get and what the manufacturer represented to us?’ If we can answer those questions, that may dictate a course of action for us.”

The engine has been troublesome since the academy took possession of the vessel in 1997, according to Capt. Lawrence Wade, the ship’s master. Some of those problems have been minor and easily corrected, Wade said recently. Others, such as the cylinder failure that disrupted this year’s annual training cruise, have been major.

A broken rocker arm on the No. 6 cylinder delayed the start of the 2003 training cruise for five days before academy crews found the cause of the problem: a small spring which had been installed incorrectly at the factory.

As the State of Maine headed back to the United States from Antwerp, Belgium, the head gasket on the same cylinder blew, forcing the ship to head straight back to Castine, operating on just five cylinders.

The academy will wait until fall, when a manufacturer’s representative can be present, to try to determine what caused the gasket to blow, Wade said.

The engine has been uncharacteristically troublesome, Koehler said. A diesel engine, even a rebuilt one, is generally very reliable, he said.

“A diesel engine should be able to go on for quite a long time,” he said.

Koehler said he had not seen this type of problem in an engine on a maritime academy ship since he joined MARAD in 1994.

“This is a unique situation in my experience,” he said. “Looking back in history, this has been the least reliable ship we’ve had in 50 years from a maintenance standpoint.”

The review committee consists of MARAD staff and the chief engineer of the State of Maine, Roger Lowell. Koehler said MARAD has begun pulling records, which will be copied and forwarded to committee members in time for their first meeting early in August.

Koehler said the ultimate goal of the review is to return the engine to “full reliability” in time for the 2004 cruise. He said the committee could have a preliminary assessment by the end of August.