High-tech tool puts maritime academy trainees to the test

The $500,000 ship-handling simulator replicates the sights, sounds and equipment in the pilothouse of commercial vessels – from tugs to cruise ships. Plasma screens can re-create ports and conditions from around the world. (Chris Tyree photos | The Virginian-Pilot)

By Jon W. Glass
The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH

For the seasoned seamen in the room, the task seemed straightforward enough: Maneuver a 5,000-ton offshore supply vessel down the Elizabeth River and dock it at a Craney Island pier.

But John Sitka III, head of academics at the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy, wasn't going to make it easy for the trainees.

Seated at a computer screen one room away, Sitka clicked up a perfect storm of simulated scenarios.

One trainee had to react when a tanker ship caught fire at the pier, sending crew members into the water. Another had to deal with near-hurricane conditions, bringing the ship in as rain blew sideways, thunder rumbled and heaving seas pitched the vessel to and fro. A third had to dock the ship at night.

All these situations were made possible by the academy's new ship-handling simulator, a high-tech training tool that replicates the sights, sounds and equipment in the pilothouse of commercial vessels - from tugs to ocean-going cargo and cruise ships.

Standing at the full-bridge simulator, peering at wall-mounted plasma screens that serve as pilothouse windows, trainees get a captain's-eye view as they steer a vessel through a virtual port of Hampton Roads - or various other ports worldwide available on computer software.

The feeling of being on the water is real enough that it can make you seasick.

"Especially when you get the seas, you feel as if you're moving," said David Ennis, a Birmingham, Ala., mariner who works on an exploratory drilling ship for Houston-based GlobalSantaFe Corp.

Schnyder Ciceron, a Portsmouth resident who works on a supply vessel for Covington, La.-based Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc., had to rescue the crewmen who abandoned the burning tanker.

"Even though this is a simulation, you still feel scared that you're going to run them over," said Ciceron, who, like Ennis, is seeking a third mate's license.

Jim Miller, president of the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy in Virginia Beach, works with a ship-handling simulator that puts the school’s trainees through a variety of scenarios they could face on board commercial vessels.

This week, the two mariners were part of the first class of a half-dozen to train on the simulator.

"I'm pretty impressed," Ennis said.

Academy and industry officials say it is the only full-bridge simulator available between Baltimore and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for training commercial mariners.

The technology, which academy executives said cost more than $500,000, is part of a larger, $1 million expansion - an effort to position the school as the East Coast's market leader for training mariners in the highly regulated maritime industry.

A group of nine investors purchased the former Tidewater School of Navigation in May and changed its name as part of the makeover.

"We're turning this from, really, a very small business, which is typical of some of these certification businesses, into an institution," said investor Arthur Goldman Jr., the academy's chairman and chief executive officer.

The academy has moved its headquarters into a suburban office building off Diamond Springs Road and now occupies 7,500 square feet, with plans to eventually double its space.

With the simulator and a broader range of classes, Jim Miller, the academy's president, said he hopes to tap the international market.

The school is lining up classes later this year for mariners working on liquid natural gas vessels for British Gas, said Miller, who piloted oil tankers in Alaska for 25 years before becoming a ship-docking tugboat captain in Hampton Roads.

Capt. Carl Smith, right, instructor for the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy’s Basic Shiphandling class, works with Schnyder Ciceron at the controls of the academy’s ship-handling simulator, which replicates conditions inside the pilothouse of commercial vessels.

Courses that the academy now offers, he said, enable mariners to become certified for positions ranging from able-bodied seaman to unlimited master captain.

Sitka, a retired Navy chief petty officer who later operated vessels for shipping company Maersk, said the Coast Guard and ship owners have pushed for more training since the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska. The tanker strayed off course and became grounded, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound.

"There are liability issues companies have to deal with now," Sitka said. From a mariner's perspective, "the more training you have, the more marketable you are and the more opportunities you have."

While other schools in the area offer various kinds of training, the academy's simulator adds a new dimension for mariners working in Hampton Roads, industry officials said.

"Having somebody local with that kind of capability sure makes life easier for us," said Capt. Elliott Westall, general manager of McAllister Towing of Virginia in Newport News, which operates 11 tugs in the region.

"In a port as significant as Hampton Roads, it's just nice to have a facility like that," said Capt. Bill Cofer, president of the Virginia Beach-based Virginia Pilot Association.

Goldman, whose background is in business management, calls the simulator "the world's greatest video game." It was made by marine technology company Transas USA, based in Seattle with an office in Fort Lauderdale.

The simulator is designed to present seamen with situations they would encounter on the water, said Paul Welling, sales manager of marine technologies for Transas in Florida.

"You can throw things at them - all of a sudden, a little sailboat appears that you never saw before, or you're in a docking situation and slowly but surely the wind increases because there's a cold front coming in," he said. "We can give them additional currents and tides."

Earlier in the week, Sitka, sitting in the control room, was throwing everything the software had at the trainees.

"Think I ought to put the pier on fire?" he asked at one point.

"No, go ahead and let them dock," Miller said. "They need the practice."

Jon W. Glass, (757) 446-2318, jon.glass@pilotonline.com