If you love the water and are looking for a good job, consider the Great Lakes Maritime Academy right here in Traverse City. According to their website, “whether your interest lies in ship navigation and piloting, management of a ship’s engine and mechanical operations, or shoreside opportunities such as import/export industries, our graduates have 100 percent job placement. Starting salaries average $10,000 per month sailed.”
Wow, 100 percent job placement! And that starting salary! I’m not sure I’d be a good candidate, since I won’t even venture out in the bay with my kayak when the water’s the least bit choppy.
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In fact, every time the water gets wild during a storm, I always think about the brave souls out on the Great Lakes in big ships like The State of Michigan pictured above. Bless the folks who do it and love it.
More about the State of Michigan:
The Maritime Academy is home to the 224-foot former Navy submarine surveillance ship Persistent, which is now T/S State of Michigan. The vessel is relatively new, having been built in 1986 as part of a series of 18 Stalwart-class T-AGOS vessels designed to tow highly sensitive sonar arrays for the tracking of Soviet submarines. As the Soviet threat diminished in the 1990s, the Navy decided to decommission the T-AGOS fleet, and in 1998, Persistent and sister ship Vindicator were transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard for primary use in drug interdiction.
While under Coast Guard ownership, the Persistent was overhauled and repowered, but eventually deemed too slow for offshore drug enforcement and made available to other government agencies. Working through the U.S. Maritime Administration, the Maritime Academy negotiated the transfer of the vessel to our harbor in Traverse City. The training ship supplements other training vessels and allows our cadets to put into practice the theory and skill sets taught in the classroom. Cadets take great pride in the State of Michigan and value the sea time underway prior to their commercial sea projects.
[…] I spotted the brave little car while driving down the parkway in Traverse City yesterday and had to pull into the marina and get a better picture. In the background is the “State of Michigan” ship parked in front of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. Read more about that here. […]