From a very early age, Peter Hames was enamored with the water and boats. At the age of 6 he learned to swim at the YMCA and by 11 years old he had achieved Life Guard status. He spent his summers on fresh water lakes in Minnesota and Michigan where his usual attire was a swimming suit. His father had a 12 foot aluminum rowboat with a 3 horsepower outboard motor. Pete built a hinged board that could be towed behind that boat, and he would go down to the lake’s bottom viewing the vegetation and fish. At 12 he rigged a sail and centerboard to the boat and spent hours motoring upwind and sailing back. A neighbor on the lake had a Snipe class sailboat and taught Pete the basics of sailing. When Pete turned 16 he purchased a used Snipe, joined a yacht club, and raced the boat every weekend. His crew was Suzann West, Pete’s high school sweetheart, who became his wife six years later. Pete graduated from University High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan in June of 1961. He received a Congressional appointment to the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, Long Island, New York, and began his Forth class year in August of 1961 as an Engine Cadet.

Peter graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1965 with a BS in Marine Engineering, a US Coast Guard license as a Third Assistant Engineer, Steam and Diesel (any horsepower), and a US Naval Reserve commission as an Ensign.
To fulfill his commitment to either sail in the merchant marine or join active-duty military, he sailed on Texaco oil tankers raising his license to Second Assistant Engineer. In 1968, he transferred ashore with Texaco Marine Department and worked in various management positions until retirement in 1995.
From 1995 until 2019 he was a self-employed consultant assisting a variety of maritime companies to design, implement and maintain Quality, Safety, and Environmental Management Systems.
He served in a Naval Reserve surface unit from 1968 until receiving an honorable discharge as a Lieutenant in 1978. He received a Master of Business Administration from Adelphi University in 1976 and a Masters in Maritime and Naval Studies, with honors, from SUNY Maritime College in 2023.
He has been a volunteer at the Houston Maritime Center & Museum since 2019. His master’s dissertation was a biography of the founder of the Houston Maritime Center & Museum and its history over the 23 years of its existence.

His book I'll Do It On My Own - James L. Manzolillo and the Houston Maritime Museum is a biography of the museum’s extraordinary founder.


   

Presentations
Maritime Museum Survey on Volunteers. Created a questionnaire via Survey Monkey and sent to 91 maritime museums to measure the importance of volunteers. Analyzed the results from 22 respondents in a paper sent to all respondents. Made a five-minute presentation at the virtual Annual Meeting of The Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM). April 20, 2021
The Design, Construction, Use, and Conversion of the T2-SE-A1 Tanker. Presented a 45-minute lecture on September 14, 2022 at the Houston Maritime Center & Museum.
The Right Way to Start an Academic Museum. Made am 25-minute presentation at the virtual conference of the Association of Academic Museums & Galleries (AAMG) on November 14, 2024
John Hoxse and the Quasi War with France. Made a 30-minute presentation based on my research paper by the same title at the Annual meeting of NASOH (North American Society For Oceanic History) in Natchez, Mississippi on May 16, 2025.