Photo Gallery: Army Soldiers Sail Away from Curtis Bay

Family members and loved ones stood on the U.S. Army Reserve Center boat dock Sunday afternoon in Curtis Bay to bid farewell to the crew aboard the Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls.

Before the gray boat with members of the 203rd Transportation Detachment left the Baltimore area during the "Sail Away" departure, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and high-ranking military officials gathered with others inside a building on the installation to hold a deployment ceremony.

The vessel's destination is the Persian Gulf region, according to the 174th Infantry Brigade Public Affairs Office, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

The Maj. Gen Robert Smalls, a logistics support vessel-8, is the Army's largest powered watercraft and can transport up to 2,000 short-tons of cargo from ship to shore during military operations, according to the 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command's  Public Affairs Office in Coraopolis, PA.

The vessel is named for Civil War officer Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls, a former slave who later served five terms in the U.S. Congress as a representative from South Carolina.

During the deployment ceremony, O'Malley, Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz and Brig. Gen. Peter S. Lennon spoke with the military personnel and their family and friends, offering them encouragement.