Acting US maritime administrator Lucinda Lessley says rooting out sexual misconduct in the country's merchant marine is "our watch".
Speaking at Philly Shipyard during the keel-laying ceremony for the first National Security Multi-Mission Vessel on Friday, Lessley said the US Maritime Administration (MarAd) is working with stakeholders across the industry to relaunch the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA)'s Sea Year.
The programme, which puts students at the university on merchant ships for training purposes, was paused in November following rape allegations made by an anonymous student.
"The mariners that will train on the vessel whose keel laying we are witnessing today need this new state-of-the-art training platform to learn the skills they will need to succeed in the 21st-century merchant marine," Lessley said, referring to the multi-mission vessel's planned use by maritime academies.
"They also need the work that we are doing now to create an industry in which they will be respected and treated with dignity regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, creed or colour."
The allegations, made by a female student, "Midshipman X", detail her rape by an engineer on board a Maersk container ship when she was 19.
She said she was pressured into drinking until she blacked out before the engineer forced himself upon her. She said she knows five other academy students who have also been raped.
The account was published by Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy, which describes itself as a seafarer rights organisation.
The group has also posted accounts from professional seafarers and at the six state-run maritime academies.
Midshipman X's account prompted the Sea Year shutdown, the second time the programme had been shuttered in five years over sexual misconduct allegations.
Those scandals were compounded by a Congressionally mandated study from the National Academy of Public Administration made public last month, which described the USMMA as falling short on issues such as curriculum, while failing to keep students safe.
Lessley said the state maritime academies are helping to provide feedback to improve Sea Year. The USMMA is run by the federal government.
She said a plan would be provided to Congress this month detailing changes to make the programme safer.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the International Maritime Organization on Monday that his department, of which MarAd is part, is working with the US Coast Guard to make it easier for victims of sexual assault or harassment to come forward and perpetrators be held accountable.
He said the US looks forward to working with the IMO on the issue.
"For too long, sexual assault and sexual harassment in maritime shipping has been an open secret, affecting the industry around the world," he said.
"Statements and commitments of zero tolerance must be backed by concrete, deliberate action."
The US Merchant Marine Academy has about 1,045 students.
Along with the Military Academy, Naval Academy, Air Force Academy and Coast Guard Academy, Kings Point is one of five federally funded service academies. Students must obtain a merchant marine officer’s licence before graduation and maintain it for the next six years while serving five years as an officer or in another maritime-related job. Students also join the Navy Reserve.
During Sea Year, students spend parts of their second and third years at the academy on board US-flagged ships.
The academy pitches the programme as key for student development, providing the opportunity to learn in a hands-on environment while developing self-discipline, confidence and human relations skills while sailing the globe.
