Maritime Academy History

In 1931, the Texas Legislature passed a statute allowing “interested citizens” to establish “in one of the harbors of the State of Texas, a Nautical School.” Twenty-seven  years later, in 1958, a group of supporters at the annual National Maritime Day banquet in Galveston established a committee to create a state maritime academy. The next year, they faced a decades-old legislative obstacle, but successfully saw it amended to allow the future maritime academy to seek both state and federal funding. In 1961, the Texas Legislature appropriated funds for the Texas Maritime Academy. The next year, the U.S. Maritime Administration approved the establishment of a maritime academy on Galveston Island. Price Daniel, the governor of Texas, and James Earl Rudder, the Texas A&M University president, signed an agreement authorizing the opening of the Texas Maritime Academy (now Texas A&M Maritime Academy) just 23 days later. 

Building 311 at Fort Crockett, a WWII military training base, was designated as the campus headquarters, and the academy welcomed its first class of cadets that fall.  

The following summer, cadets from A&M joined State University of New York Maritime College cadets for their first summer cruise aboard the EMPIRE STATE IV. The Texas cadets—many of whom had never even left the state—visited Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Mallorca.

The academy soon received TS TEXAS CLIPPER which previously transported World War II troops and cargo, to serve as its first training ship. The renovation was rushed to meet the sea term deadline, and the first voyage of the original Texas Clipper was so uncomfortable that it became academy lore.

By 1971, the new Mitchell Campus on Pelican Island was ready for occupancy after a generous donation of 100 acres of land by George P. Mitchell. Two years later, Susan Jean “Sudi” Carter ’76 became the first woman and Joe Sybille ’77 became the first African American to join the maritime academy. 

In 1994, after 29 years of service to the maritime academy, TS TEXAS CLIPPER completed its last sea term, eventually arriving at its final resting place in 2007. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department deliberately sank the ship 17 nautical miles off the shore of South Padre Island, where it's now an artificial reef serving as a valuable habitat for marine life. 

TS TEXAS CLIPPER was replaced by TS TEXAS CLIPPER II, which embarked on its first voyage in the summer of 1996. Then, in 2005, TEXAS CLIPPER II was replaced by USNS Sirius, which SS Cape Gibson would replace four years later.

In 2012, TS GENERAL RUDDER (named after former university president James Earl Rudder) arrived on campus and served as a training vessel for 11 years until 2023, when the academy welcomed the TS KENNEDY. 

TS KENNEDY was the first training vessel in 18 years that was able to fully accommodate mariner training needs. Though it officially became the training ship of Texas A&M Maritime Academy in 2023, the ship had previously hosted three of the academy's last five summer sea terms. 

That same year, the academy celebrated two milestones for TS LONE STAR STATE – a state-of-the-art training vessel that was approved by Congress in December of 2020. January saw the start of fabrication and the keel laying took place in December. 

In late 2025, The U.S. Maritime Administration took possession of TS KENNEDY to make way for TS LONE STAR STATE, which is slated to arrive on campus for the fall of 2026.

In the summer of 2027, for the first time in the academy's history, cadets will live and learn on a brand new ship assigned to the Texas A&M Maritime Academy. Though cadets throughout the last six-and-a-half decades have benefited from several training ships, they all had one common denominator: each was a hand-me-down and retrofitted to serve cadet needs. The purpose-built TS LONE STAR STATE revolutionizes the training capabilities of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy. 

A lot has happened between the time a group of Galvestonians vowed to construct the nation’s fifth maritime academy on their island and the Texas A&M Maritime Academy’s rise to its central role on the Galveston Campus today, but the academy's mission to equip students to skillfully serve as officers in the Merchant Marine remains.

TEXAS CLIPPER

The first ship used by Sea Aggies was the TEXAS CLIPPER, a 473-foot, 14,000-ton ship that began as a World War II transport ship called the USS Queens and ferried wounded troops injured on the battlefield, including operations in the Pacific during the battle at Iwo Jima. When the war ended, the ship became one of the Four Aces (the SS Excambion), serving as a luxury cruise liner and making frequent round-trips from New York City to the Mediterranean.

“The original ship had a rounded stern, like the fabled Clipper ships, and so the ship bore the name of the TEXAS CLIPPER,” says Stephen Curley, Regents professor of English at Texas A&M-Galveston who has written a book about the ship titled The Ship That Would Not Die. “Hands down, the first TEXAS CLIPPER is the most significant of all the ships because it trained Aggie midshipmen on 30 annual summer voyages.”

The TEXAS CLIPPER was eventually used by hundreds of Sea Aggies from 1965 through 1994 and served as a floating classroom around the world for students studying maritime sciences, oceanography and marine biology.

TEXAS CLIPPER II

The ship was replaced by the TEXAS CLIPPER II, which had formerly been the USNS Chauvenet and was designed by the Navy to conduct hydrographic surveys. In 2005, The TEXAS CLIPPER II was replaced by the former USNS Sirius, which was later replaced in 2009 by the SS Cape Gibson.

GENERAL RUDDER

The GENERAL RUDDER came to Texas A&M Maritime Academy in 2012 and is named for legendary Texas A&M graduate James Earl Rudder, who commanded the fabled Army Rangers during their scaling of Pointe Du Hoc on D-Day, June 6, 1944, on the French coast. Rudder went on to become president of Texas A&M from 1959 until his death in 1970. Thanks to the hard work of General Rudder and other local leaders, in 1962 the Texas A&M Maritime Academy began operations.

The GENERAL RUDDER began her career in 1983 as the USNS Contender, an ocean surveillance ship for the U.S. Navy and was designed to collect underwater acoustical data in support of Cold War anti-submarine warfare.

KENNEDY

The KENNEDY, officially became the training ship of Texas A&M Maritime Academy in Spring 2023 from Massachusetts Maritime Academy although the KENNEDY has hosted summer sea terms in 2018, 2021, and 2022. The KENNEDY sailed her final sea term in Summer 2025 carrying cadets from both Texas A&M and Maine Maritime Academies. The KENNEDY departed Texas A&M's Galveston campus in September 2025.

The TS KENNEDY was built in 1967 as the VELMA LYKES, for Lykes Bros. Steamship Company. KENNEDY is a C-5 Far East Clipper-class break bulk cargo ship carrying various products all over the world. The ship served with Lykes Bros commercially worldwide, including several trips in the Persian Gulf during the First Gulf War, and was later sent to the ready reserve fleet as “Cape Bon”. In 2003, the ship completed a refit and was moved to Massachusetts Maritime Academy as TS ENTERPRISE. Another major renovation was completed in 2009 and the ship was renamed KENNEDY. The KENNEDY is 540-ft in length, 76-ft wide and has a gross tonnage of 13,886. The KENNEDY is powered by two 600-psi Foster Wheeler Boilers and a De Laval steam turbine - propulsion that is extremely rare in today’s maritime world- driving a single propeller. Her top speed is approximately 20 knots at 95 rpm with her engine delivering 15,500 hp.