Training Ship
Originally launched in 1985 as the USNS Persistent (T-AGOS-6); the T/S State of Michigan was commissioned as a Stalwart class Tactical Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship (TAGOS). She was built as an ocean submarine surveillance vessel to tow highly sensitive sonar arrays to track Soviet submarines during the Cold War. In the 1990s, when the Soviet threat was no longer a concern, the Navy opted to decommission the T-AGOS fleet. In 1998, the USNS Persistent and her sister ship, the USNS Vindicator (T-AGOS-3) were transferred to the United States Coast Guard to be used in drug regulation. Even after overhauls to the USNS Persistent, she was determined to be too slow to keep up with the drug policing and became available to other government agencies.
The Great Lakes Maritime Academy worked with the U.S. Maritime Administration to negotiate a transfer of the vessel to the Academy harbor. In the summer of 2002, the USNS Persistent underwent maintenance and additional overhaul to prepare her for her new freshwater home. In August 2002, the vessel, whose name was changed to the T/S State of Michigan by the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, departed for the Great Lakes by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The training ship is now used as a daily laboratory environment and is also used underway allowing cadets to put into practice the theory and skills they have learned prior to their commercial sea projects.
Ship specifications
- Length: 224 ft.
- Beam: 43 ft.
- Draft: 15 ft.
- Speed: 11 knots
- Displacement: 1,565 tons (light) and 2,535 tons (full)
- Underway fuel consumption: 72 gallons/hr.
- Power Plant: Diesel-electric; 4 Caterpillar D 398 diesel generators,
3,200 hp, 2 motors, 1,600 hp; 2 shafts; bow thruster; 550 hp
Read more about this topic: Great Lakes Maritime Academy
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