Technical Information about the Training Ship Golden Bear from a talk by Captain Keeper

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• Built for the US Navy in 1989 to map the ocean floor. Original name was the USNS Maurey.
  
  
• Cost $200 million with specialized equipment, $120 million four just the ship.
  
  
• Two medium speed diesel engines which have been derated from about 12,000 hp each to about 8,000 hp each.
  
  
• Three 900 kilovolt generators which can deliver 3 megawatts of power, which would be more than enough to power the entire CMA campus.
  
  
• The square footage of the Golden Bear is equal to half the total square footage of the CMA campus.
  
  
• The ship is 10 stories high, and if stood on end would equal a 33 story building.
  
  
• The ship averages about 12 knots, but sometimes runs as slowly as 10 knots on one engine or as fast as 18 knots on both engines. 1 knot = 1.15 statute mile per hour.
  
  
• The ship holds 3,400 tons of fuel. It burns about 20 tons per day, but 10 tons per day is used just to generate electricity for the lights and the pumps. One ton is equivalent to 300 gallons. The ship burns about 26 gallons of fuel per mile.
  
  
• The ship could sail 1.5 times around the world if it began with full fuel tanks.
  
  
• The price of diesel fuel has been increasing. In 2000 fuel was purchased in Long Beach, CA for $237 per ton. In 2001 fuel was purchased on the futures market for delivery in Hong Kong for $255 per ton. At the time that fuel was pumped aboard in Hong Kong, the price of fuel in Hong Kong was $310 per ton, and $320 per ton in Long Beach.
  
  
• It costs the U.S. Maritime Administration about $1.4 million to operate the Golden Bear for a year. This is the average cost of maintainance!
  
  
• Fuel costs the CMA about $500,000 per year, the total cost for the two cruises.
  
  
• Consumables aboard the ship cost about $150,000.
  
  
• The ship's staff costs about $700,000.
  
  
• Additional staff needed for the cruises costs about $350,000.
  
  
• Port fees cost about $50,000.
  
  
• Food costs about $200,000.
  
  
• The total cost for the two cruises is about $3.35 million, and for 123 cruise days that comes to about $27,000 per day or $1,500 per hour.
  
  
• If a total of 360 students (CMA and Cal Poly) travel on the two cruises, the cost per student is about $9,300.