SUNY Maritime College Empire VII 525 Foot Tall Floating Classroom Spotted Passing Roosevelt Island A Few Days Ago

The East River Keeper Instagram page is continuing the great work sharing photos and telling stories about the East River boat traffic while:

Sitting on #RooseveltIsland like a lighthouse keeper, watching the boats and world go by on the #EastRiver, and wondering about their stories…

Here’s East River Keeper story from last Friday:

Aboard this floating seascraper, the cadets from SUNY Maritime College passed Roosevelt Island yesterday. At 525 feet, if standing on its stern, this beautiful beast of a boat from the Bronx would be one of the tallest buildings along the East River – it’s half the height of the @ChryslerNYC Building. In the reel, see the ship towering above Astoria Houses just before it limbos under the Hell Gate Bridge.

The USTS EMPIRE STATE🇺🇸 is a purpose-built training ship for the college, serving as a “floating classroom” to train future mariners (up to 600 cadets). It’s one of five National Security Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMVs) that can be called up for disaster relief and humanitarian missions in times of crisis. The vessel features modern classrooms, labs, simulators, auditorium, helicopter pad (or space to transport cargo), hospital facilities, and one would hope, a beer pong table for the cadets.

On August 28th, its twin ship, USTS PATRIOT STATE🇺🇸 from @massmaritime, traveled these same waters….

Here’s more info about the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College Empire State VII training ship,

it’s predecessor Empire State VI

and the final voyage of Empire State VI.