The US Maritime Administration (MARAD) has released the training ship Empire State VII from a planned federal deployment, SUNY Maritime College said on Wednesday, October 21.
The ship is now expected to return to the college's Fort Schuyler campus in the Bronx, New York, for academic purposes and work aboard the vessel, with watches set to resume by mid-November at the latest. No exact arrival date has been given.
In a letter to the college community, college president Rear Admiral John A. Okon said the return, "will allow us to resume the critical hands-on learning, shipboard activities, and sea time requirements for our USCG-approved program."
"We will continue working with MARAD to confirm the exact details of the ship's return and ensure we are ready to resume normal operations," he added.
Empire State VII departed New York for Norfolk, Virginia, on September 30. She had been scheduled to stay there through October 30 for an extended period of maintenance and repairs, with flight deck certification included, before follow-on operations in support of the US Navy.
MARAD did not publicly detail the mission, though a spokesperson said in August that the navy, Military Sealift Command and MARAD were evaluating options to increase transport capacity for sailors and civil service mariners supporting naval operations in the Indo-Pacific.
The college's regiment of 1,150 cadets uses the ship for classes or training. Okon had asked MARAD to return the vessel on or about February 12, 2027, to keep the summer sea term on schedule.
MARAD said this would have been the first time a national security multimission vessel (NSMV) was activated to support national security missions.
Empire State VII was delivered by Philly Shipyard (now Hanwha Philly) in 2023 as the first of five NSMVs. The federally owned ship has a length of 160.05 metres, a service speed of 18 knots, and capacity to train up to 600 cadets at sea.