Maritime Museum Program Dives into Maritime Academy

Jerry Achenbach

The next installment in the Door County Maritime Museum’s Maritime Speaker Series will welcome Jerry Achenbach, superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. He will present “Aboard the Great Lakes Maritime Academy Fleet,” about the academy at Northwest Michigan College and its fleet. 

The academy was established in 1969 to educate and train future generations for careers in the commercial shipping industry. Skills taught shoreside are reinforced through sea time aboard the 224-foot training ship State of Michigan, a former Navy submarine surveillance ship, and three other training vessels. 

Achenbach is a 1986 graduate of the State University of New York Maritime College who sailed as a licensed officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine for three years before being accepted into the Coast Guard’s Officer Candidate School. Since his graduation, he has served as a deck watch officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Yocona in Kodiak, Alaska, and has had many other domestic and international assignments.

The free presentation will be held Nov. 3, 7 pm, both online and in person on the second floor of the Door County Maritime Museum, 120 N. Madison Ave. in Sturgeon Bay. In-person guests are asked to take a nonperishable food donation, and online guests are asked to donate to a local food pantry.

Find more details and a link to watch the presentation online at dcmm.org/maritime-speaker-series.