Texas A&M University at Galveston Celebrates Arrival of Training Ship Lone Star State
The $325M purpose-built vessel delivers a new era in maritime education while serving the storied campus’ community-envisioned mission to support the blue economy.
The TS Lone Star State, a towering 524-foot-long, diesel-electric-powered ship loaded with high-tech training spaces, arrived on campus Tuesday, Sept. 8. Credit: TAMUG Division of Marketing and Communications
The TS Lone Star State, a $325 million new purpose-built vessel, arrived Tuesday, Sept. 8, at Texas A&M University at Galveston — a milestone moment for the storied campus and the island and Aggie leaders who have been fierce advocates for it since the 1950s.
The result of decades of work by university, community, industry leaders and supporters, TS Lone Star State provides the Texas A&M Maritime Academy with a ship specifically designed for training, rather than a converted, end-of-life vessel. The ship is the fourth of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD)’s National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) program, established to address the maritime workforce shortage.
Moored at the Texas Clipper Pier, the 524-foot-long, diesel-electric-powered ship loaded with high-tech training spaces towers over campus buildings and acts as a beacon to attract desperately needed future mariners, ocean scientists, and other professionals to support the blue economy.
“There’s something special happening here on this campus,” said Dr. Donna Lang ’88, Interim Dean of the College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies and Associate Vice President for Academic Operations at the Galveston Campus. “What’s going to happen here in less than six months is going to change the trajectory of the campus even further.”
In October, university leaders will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Engineering Classroom and Research Building; in November, the Galveston Campus will host community, political, and university leaders for a celebration of TS Lone Star State; and in early 2027, the campus will break ground on the new Cheryl Mellenthin Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and Educational Outreach Center.
“Our researchers, faculty and graduates are literally driving the blue economy.”
— Col. Michael E. Fossum, Vice President of Texas A&M, Chief Operating Officer of the Galveston Campus and Superintendent of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy.
The Galveston Campus will also be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Texas A&M University and its own 65th anniversary as Texas A&M’s specialized marine, coastal and maritime branch campus later this year. Established in the 1960s with the creation of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy, the Galveston Campus ecosystem now includes the most comprehensive college of marine, coastal, and maritime degrees, spanning from the humanities to engineering, and 35 research centers, institutes, and specialized laboratories.
“Our researchers, faculty and graduates are literally driving the blue economy,” said Col. Michael E. Fossum, Vice President of Texas A&M, Chief Operating Officer of the Galveston Campus and Superintendent of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy. “From exploring alternative fuels for shipping vessels to rehabilitating sea turtles, to mitigating natural and human impacts to our oceans and coastal communities, the Galveston Campus directly contributes to better understanding, protecting and conserving our oceans and surrounding ecosystems.”
To help the state and nation meet maritime workforce demands, the Texas A&M Maritime Academy is leveraging its new ship with a targeted recruitment campaign, an in-state tuition program for all cadets and new industry-focused degree and continuing education programs. As a result, the academy has seen 70 percent growth with record incoming classes in the past two years.
“What I have witnessed is a remarkable, coordinated effort by all six of the state maritime academies to relentlessly press forward to engage our congressional delegations, alumni, and regional stakeholders to get us here today,” Fossum said. “I am personally grateful to the president of Texas A&M University, the chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, and the board of regents for making this their top priority and not giving up until we were successful.”
BUILT FROM LEGACIES OF SERVICE
The path to this modern triumph echoes the historic legacy of so many before who also wouldn’t give up on a vision of what the Galveston Campus could do and be.
Lang, as she addressed faculty to begin the semester, recalled how a speech made during a National Maritime Day celebration in 1958 piqued local interest in the four state maritime academies on the upper east and west coasts.
Robert K. Hutchings, a banker, asked whether Galveston could have one, and Rear Adm. Walter Ford, a deputy administrator of the federal Maritime Administration, supported the idea of opening one on the “third coast” by helping the Galveston Chamber of Commerce make critical connections.
Emmett O. Kirkham, for whom the Galveston Campus’s original classroom-laboratory-administration building is named, first chaired the Chamber’s merchant marine academy committee, followed by campus founding father Rear Adm. Sherman B. Wetmore.
With support from industry leaders, other state maritime academies, elected officials, including Sen. A.R. “Babe” Schwartz ’47, and the Texas A&M administration, including President Gen. James Earl Rudder, the effort overcame funding and political hurdles.
On Jan. 26, 1962, Rudder and Texas Gov. Price Daniel signed the contract with the Maritime Administration to support the Texas Maritime Academy. On Feb. 24, the Board of Directors of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College System formally established the academy.
The academy’s first superintendent, Bennet M. Dodson, welcomed the inaugural class of 23 cadets on Sept. 17, 1962. Cadets would spend a year in College Station as part of the first Marine Corps company in Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets, and their remaining three years at Fort Crockett in Galveston.
Texas A&M’s marine research and maritime interests converged at Fort Crockett, which had housed the Marine Laboratory of the A&M College of Texas in Building 311since 1958.
Under the direction of resident scientist Albert Collier, the laboratory served as a shore base for research vessels, contract and student research, courses and summer institutes.
Dr. Sammy Ray, a world-renowned marine biologist and the grandfather of marine sciences for the Galveston Campus, took Collier’s place a year after the academy opened. Ray, a world-renowned marine biologist, founded Sea Camp and held every position from professor to interim president.
Strong advocates and generous support from the Galveston community carried the academy through challenging times.
In 1968, the academy received $1 million from the Mary Moody Northen Foundation, so named for a beloved Galveston businesswoman and philanthropist, and 135 acres on Pelican Island from Galveston native George P. Mitchell ’40, a legendary oil and gas pioneer and real estate developer.
The Northen and Mitchell legacies live on in the work of the campus today as well as its traditions and landmarks. The campus student center and an annual breakfast for sea-term seniors are named after Northen. The George P. Mitchell Society provides funding for an undergraduate scholarship while Mitchell’s statue welcomes all who arrive on campus.
“I don’t think Albert Collier when he came down here to set up a lab understood what he was building,” Lang said. “I would be interested for an Emmett Kirkham to see this campus today and see the size and scale of that training ship.”
What Kirkham, Schwartz, Rudder, Northen, Mitchell, and so many others would see is a preeminent maritime and marine science campus where Sea Aggies are coming together as a force for good.
“There’s something special happening here on this campus.”
— Dr. Donna Lang ’88, Interim Dean of the College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies and Associate Vice President for Academic Operations
