You don’t need a Delorean with a flux capacitor to travel back in time. One visit to the Ship History Center of the Steam Ship Historical Society of America (SSHSA), located in the building that used to house administrative offices for New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) on Post Road in Warwick, will transport you back to a time when steam-powered vessels dominated the seas.

The center is filled with all manner of memorabilia, from original oil paintings and paper model replicas of steam ships to artifacts, periodicals, and official records, providing quite an impressive collection of maritime heritage and history.

State and local officials, including U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Mayor Scott Avedisian, and R.I. State Senator William Walaska and House Rep. Joseph McNamara, gathered at the center Monday morning to recognize that heritage and to announce the historical society’s reception of a federal $50,000 matching grant, which will help preserve that heritage and make it more accessible to the public, especially students and teachers, through an update to the center’s website and continued development of its maritime education program.

“Our role is – kids are sponges and they absorb everything – we need to add water to that sponge and counter-act all the negativity that’s out there,” said SSHSA executive director Matthew Schulte. “When kids look down Narragansett Bay and see the huge container ships in Quonset, they can understand what’s going on.”

Schulte said teachers from around the state were brought in to look at the materials, which they can now create lesson plans around for their students, especially with STEM programs, or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math).

“This program is important because, like the ships used steam, we can use the conduit of the Internet to drive forward, full-steam ahead,” Schulte said. “Education and outreach is the key, and now our anchor is set here in Warwick.”

The grant was made possible by the National Parks Service through the National Maritime Heritage Grant Program, in which federal funds were generated from the scrapping and sale of obsolete vessels from the Maritime Administration’s National Defense Reserve Fleet, which were purchased for recycling.

Overall, $2.6 million was distributed to projects in 19 states to repair and restore a number of maritime historical sites and help launch a variety of historic exhibits, education programs and online resources, according to a press release.

In addition to the $50,000 raised on its own, the grant brings SSHSA’s total current funding to $100,000.

SSHSA was the only organization in Rhode Island to receive grant funding, which it had to compete against dozens of other organizations to win.

“This grant has taken years to accomplish. We struck out on our first attempt two years ago, but we regrouped and put it back together,” Schulte said. “This grant accents what we’re trying to do, which is re-branding and re-pointing to www.shiphistory.org, and develop a separate educational website that will be user-friendly for [mobile] devices.”

Schulte said the grant will also help with staffing, consultants, and identifying the tools needed to bring to the market.

In its 81st year of existence, Schulte said SSHSA recently held its 80th annual meeting over the weekend, which functioned, in part, as a fundraiser for the Ship History Center’s “neighbor next door,” NEIT, to help showcase its Shipbuilding/Marine Trades and Advanced Manufacturing Institute (SAMI) program.

“This is all working. We had a productive meeting over the weekend with 100 people coming from all around the country,” Schulte said, adding he hopes to make it a fun, cultural annual event.

Avedisian said the Ship History Center was the result of an offhand comment during a 4th of July parade in Warwick Neck.

“Matt [Schulte] said he wanted to rent the building where the New England Tech administration offices used to be and we thought since they’re staying here in Warwick and not selling, we could revisit the issue and make it work,” he said. “This is a great fit. These materials and items used to be locked away in boxes and warehouses. They couldn’t show them and they couldn’t be used as resources by students; they were unable to teach us about the past while preparing us for the future.”

Avedisian said the grant is a win for everybody involved.

“It’s a win for New England Tech because they can rent the space, it’s a win for students who can do research, it’s a win for the historical society because it gives them a space to display materials, and it’s a win for the city because we now have a new tourist attraction,” he said. “All those people visiting over the weekend stayed in our hotels and ate at our restaurants, and to have a federal grant to do more work is great.”

Reed said the day was very exciting.

“SSHSA is an auspicious organization documenting and organizing maritime history,” he said. “We are the hub of the maritime industry of America, with places like Bristol and Mystic. This is a good model for the future, as well as representing the past. I look forward to working with you as you continue to impress and amaze.”

Whitehouse described the center as a gem.

“If anyone has a rainy day and doesn’t know what to do, they should come here and spend a couple hours,” he said. “Just in the half-hour that I’ve been here, I’ve been impressed.”

Captain Dave Pickering, founder and chairman of Seamanship and Leadership Training for Youths (S.A.L.T.Y.), said S.A.L.T.Y. and SSHSA are inter-mingled in providing access to youths.

“We’re all on the same team,” he said. “SSHSA is a critical cornerstone that collects a great maritime heritage, which if it were not saved might be lost forever.”

The new website is expected to take about a year to design and implement. For more information about SSHSA, visit www.sshsa.org.

SAILING INTO HISTORY: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Mayor Scott Avedisian admire a half-hull model at the Ship History Center of the Steam Ship Historical Society of America in Warwick. (Warwick Beacon photo)