Massachusetts Maritime Academy Names William Sabatini Executive Director/Senior Captain of SSV Ernestina-Morrissey
BUZZARDS BAY, MA …Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA; www.maritime.edu), a top-ranked public university with undergraduate degree programs focusing on science, engineering, technology, math, and business that blend academics and experiential learning, is pleased to announce the appointment of Captain William Sabatini as the new executive director/senior captain of the academy’s historic 1894 schooner, the SSV Ernestina-Morrissey.
In this newly defined position, Captain Sabatini will be responsible for overseeing operations and management and serve as senior captain during the sailing season, with assistance from a seasonal captain as necessary.
Captain Sabatini has been sailing tall ships around the globe for more than three decades and this appointment will bring him close to the familiar waters where his sailing career started. A native of Cape Cod, he is a graduate of Tabor Academy as well as the Maine Maritime Academy.
Captain Sabatini began sailing aboard the SSV Tabor Boy at Tabor in Buzzards Bay in 1996 followed by Bowdoin at Maine Maritime. From 2005 to 2026 Sabatini worked in Erie, PA, working with both U.S. Brig Niagara and later Lettie G. Howard, working his way from third mate of U.S. Brig Niagara to the appointment of president and CEO.. While with the Flagship Niagara League, the organization won Tall Ship America’s Sail Training Program of the Year twice (2010, 2015), and Port of the Year twice (2019, 2022). He was also named Tall Ships America Sail Trainer of the Year in 2022.
The 156’ SSV Ernestina-Morrissey is a wooden two-masted gaff-rigged grand banks fishing schooner that was first launched in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester fleet.
Under Captain Bob Bartlett, she sailed to within 600 miles of the North Pole; in 1948 she was purchased by Captain Henrique Mendes and started a new life as a transatlantic packet ship that transported food, passengers, and cargo between New England and Cape Verde, and later continued inter-island trade. She was returned to the U.S. in 1982 as a gift from the newly independent Cape Verdean people. The ship regularly cruises the waters of the East Coast with a home port of New Bedford, MA.
The Ernestina-Morrissey is certified by the United States Coast Guard as a sailing school vessel and a passenger vessel.
“I’m honored to be selected as Captain of this storied ship,” said Sabatini. “I look forward to working with new generations of mariners and allowing them to experience this historical chapter of sea life, while growing our programs and preparing for a voyage back to Cape Verde!”
“We are incredibly fortunate to have Captain Sabatini join the Academy team in this role,” said Dr. James McKenna, Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “In addition to his sailing and sail training acumen, Captain Sabatini’s enthusiastic commitment to embracing the significance of the Ernestina-Morrissey and her history and peoples is infectious. He is an outstanding collaborator, creative thinker, and passionate mariner.”
Massachusetts Maritime Academy will continue to focus the efforts of the Schooner SSV Ernestina-Morrissey on undergraduate sail-training and leadership training for cadets, K-12 STEM programming, community outreach and awareness within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond.
****
