Long trek to Lone Star State sparked plan for SC maritime academy

by David Wren, SC Daily Gazette, August 8, 2025.

With more than 1,100 miles to think while driving from Charleston to Galveston, Texas, three years ago, state Rep. Tom Hartnett Jr. found himself asking the same question again and again.

Why doesn’t South Carolina have its own maritime academy?

Hartnett was taking his son, Rhett, to the Texas A&M maritime academy — one of just seven such schools nationwide — for his freshman year.

Months later, the Charleston Republican won his first election to the Statehouse. Rhett, who plans to become a merchant mariner, will graduate later this year.

Since that trip, the elder Hartnett — a former stevedore turned real estate appraiser — has been taking steps to bring a new maritime academy to Charleston. Palmetto State residents interested in jobs on commercial vessels or along the waterfront shouldn’t have to face long distances — and expensive out-of-state tuition — to reach their goals, he said.

Earlier this week, Hartnett met with Brig. Gen. Sally Seldon, provost and dean of The Citadel, to discuss the potential creation of the South Carolina Maritime Academy at South Carolina’s military college.

“She was very receptive,” Hartnett told the SC Daily Gazette, adding he hopes a working group of education and maritime industry leaders will be formed in the coming months to discuss the next steps.

The academy would integrate with The Citadel’s existing infrastructure, reducing startup costs and accelerating the academy’s launch timeline. Hartnett said he hopes the academy will be up and running within two years.

A spokesperson for The Citadel did not respond to a request for comment, but the idea already has strong backing.

“The maritime industry faces significant challenges in meeting the growing demand for a skilled workforce,” Bradley Kerr, director of sales and marketing at Detyens Shipyards, said in a written statement.

“To ensure the future security and resilience of our nation’s maritime infrastructure, we must establish accessible and robust pathways for local and state students to pursue careers in critical fields such as marine engineering, naval architecture, marine mechanics and logistics, thereby fortifying our shipyards and logistical framework,” Kerr said.

• From Classroom to Shipyard: USMMA Midshipmen Gain Hands-On Experience at Detyens

John Cameron, executive director of the Charleston Harbor Pilots, said merchant marine officers who go on to leadership roles with shipping companies, insurers, admiralty law firms and port administration are more likely to be from a state with a maritime academy.

“South Carolina ought to be one of them,” Cameron said in a written statement.

Hartnett said the Port of Charleston and the area’s well-established maritime industry offer ready-made training opportunities.

“Our back yard is nothing but a classroom — a training area for mariners,” he said.

A spokesperson for the S.C. State Ports Authority, which owns and operates Charleston’s port, said in an email that the state agency is “thankful for Hartnett’s continued support of the maritime industry and expects to participate in conversations with him to support his efforts.”

A handful of private and public maritime training programs already exist in the Charleston region, including at Trident Technical College which offers an associate’s degree in marine engineering technology.

But existing programs aren’t on the scale of what an academy recognized by the U.S. Maritime Administration would offer. Such academies must provide all of the instruction and at-sea training needed to become a commissioned officer and U.S. Coast Guard-licensed Merchant Mariner. The proposed Citadel program would also offer four-year degrees in marine engineering, logistics and transportation.

The federal Maritime Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, provides training vessels and some funding, although the S.C. Legislature would likely need to kick in additional state money for a South Carolina academy.

It’s still too early to know how much that might take, Hartnett said.

“By leveraging Charleston’s port infrastructure and The Citadel’s military structure, the academy would provide immediate access to real-world maritime experience through partnerships with local shipyards, port operators, and federal Ready Reserve Force vessels” owned by the Maritime Administration, according to a release from Hartnett announcing his proposal.

The seven maritime academies nationwide graduate fewer than 1,500 licensed officers annually – far below the yearly estimated need for 2,200 licensed officers and 9,700 water transportation workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than half of current merchant marine officers are expected to retire over the coming 15 to 20 years.

The median pay — meaning half earn more and half less — for such workers is $66,490 per year, according to the bureau.

“How can we continue to deny our citizens the ability to open the doors to career paths like that?” Hartnett said. “We owe it to South Carolina. We owe it to our citizens, the students and our waterfront industry. It’s just something that has to be done.”

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.