(Photo: Seamens’ Church Institute)
In 2001, George Burkley, a maritime educator, wrote a look-ahead article for Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, presenting the benefits and real-world payoffs from using simulators in maritime education. In the late 1990s, new tech and software advances were creating scenario programs that moved a student closer and closer to the realities demanded by, well, reality. “The future is here, and we are ready to simulate it,” Burkley concluded.
Burkley is now executive director at the Maritime Pilots Institute in Covington, La. In a recent interview he recalled how 20 years ago simulator training might include an actual ship’s engine order telegraph, to mimic an actual ship. “We don’t do that anymore,” Burkley laughed, “regarding automation, the simulators got ahead of the ships. Now the ships are catching up. Students know there is no handle for something, just a touch screen.”