Working Conditions Aboard the State-Of-Michigan

he imposing ship seemed to appear out of nowhere Saturday morning, docked just past the USS Croaker and USS Little Rock on Buffalo’s Inner Harbor. It turns out the 224-foot, black-hulled boat – emblazoned with its name “State of Michigan” – was simply on a break from its long tour of duty navigating the Great Lakes. Onboard were 56 students – or cadets – in their first year of learning how to be sailors and officers in the commercial shipping industry. The State of Michigan, it turns out, is their 1,800-horsepower floating classroom – a training ship for the Great Lakes Maritime Academy based in Traverse City, Mich. Originally built as a submarine surveillance ship, the State of Michigan had sailed from Toledo, Ohio, and pulled into Buffalo about 9 a.m. The ship has been stopping in Buffalo around the Memorial Day weekend each of the last three years, though it doesn’t stay long. At 3:45 p.m. Saturday, crews were hauling in the gangplank and stood in single file to haul in the thick ropes that tied the ship to the dock.