Professional Mariner – American Ship Review 2026

Can AI help solve US shipbuilding’s biggest problems?

The State of Shipbuilding The Rove is a quadrupedal “robot dog” with a blowtorch on its head. Outfitted with cameras and sensors to guide it, the long-necked robot can move around a shipyard and weld steel plates, structural frames, pipe systems and other metal components of a vessel. It can also learn. Columbus-based Path Robotics programmed the Rove with an…

YEAR AT A GLANCE

Hanwha Shipping placed the largest U.S. commercial shipbuilding order in more than two decades, commissioning 10 medium-range tankers from Hanwha Philly Shipyard. The company also ordered a second U.S.-built LNG carrier, bringing the nation’s LNG carrier orderbook to its highest level since the 1970s. September 2025 Crowley’s CS Anthem joined the Maritime Administration’s Tanker Security Program, replacing Stena Immaculate, which…

Acadia launches a new American capability

2026 Ship of the Year: Acadia As the largest dredging contractor in the U.S., Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company saw a ceiling on its traditional business model and sought opportunities for growth. In the early 2020s, GLDD set plans in motion for Acadia, a first-of-its-kind Jones Act subsea rock installation vessel that marked the company’s expansion into offshore energy.…

American Cruise Lines and Chesapeake accelerate newbuild pace

AMERICAN MAVERICK / AMERICAN ENCORE When American Cruise Lines (ACL) christened coastal cruise ship American Maverick in June and modern riverboat American Encore in May, the back-to-back deliveries highlighted the extraordinary pace of growth at the nation’s largest domestic cruise operator and one of the country’s most active commercial shipbuilding programs. The two vessels are the latest products of an…

Maine Maritime Academy debuts new training ship on summer cruise

STATE OF MAINE For the first time in its history, Maine Maritime Academy has a purpose-built training ship, and its students — along with cadets from Texas A&M Maritime Academy — have already put their new vessel through its paces. TS State of Maine arrived at its homeport in Castine on July 12 after completing its inaugural summer cruise, a…

Houston Pilots’ next-generation Cajun Twins

SAN JACINTO / JUAN SEGUIN Decades of lessons learned by one of the nation’s busiest pilot associations — and a Louisiana boatbuilder willing to customize rather than standardize — came together in two next-generation pilot boats designed around reliability, maintainability and crew comfort. Delivered in May 2025 and March 2026, San Jacinto and Juan Seguin are the workhorses of the…

Modernizing the dredge fleet

AMELIA ISLAND Capt. Tony Magnoli, who is quick to find humor in the job, joked that dredgers essentially get paid to “run aground” — his shorthand for lowering the vessel’s dragheads to the seafloor. The captain learned that seemingly paradoxical shiphandling when he joined Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, the largest dredging contractor in the U.S. Dredging today is…

Battery Steele: The East Coast’s first electrically propelled ferry

BATTERY STEELE This fall, East Coast passengers will board the region’s first electrically propelled ferry when Casco Bay Lines places hybrid diesel-electric Battery Steele into service on its six-mile route between Portland and Peaks Island, replacing the nearly 40-year-old Machigonne II. “It’ll be quieter. There’ll be less vibration than Machigonne II, and you won’t have the diesel smells or…

Amid political headwinds, offshore wind vessel is ready for anything

ATLANTIC ENDURANCE Technicians taking the trip out to a wind farm on Atlantic Endurance, a new offshore wind crew transfer vessel owned by Atlantic Wind Transfers, may forget they’re on a boat. That’s by design, according to Charles A. Donadio Jr., CEO of Atlantic Wind Transfers. Some trips can take three to four hours due to speed restrictions intended to…

Hybrid tour boat reflects a changing Los Angeles Harbor

EL ESCUDO Dan Salas is an old-school mariner betting heavily on the future. Nearly four decades after founding Harbor Breeze Cruises, Salas has watched passenger vessels — and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — change dramatically. His company’s newest vessel, El Escudo, offers a glimpse of where the passenger vessel industry might be headed. Delivered this year…