No competent biologist would say that seaweed and ivy could branch from the same stem, but as surely as the ivy climbs the old, gray walls of Fort Schuyler and the seaweed lies green on the rocks surrounding Throgs Neck, both can flourish side by side. At The State University of New York Maritime College the “seaweed”—or professional maritime training— and the “ivy”—or liberal arts courses— supplement each other in producing graduates who are excellent mariners as well as cultured gentlemen.
Fort Schuyler itself, named after General Philip Schuyler, was begun in 1833 and is one of the finest examples of French military architecture in the United States. The circular stone staircases were designed to give right-hand sword advantage to the defender. Today, these same stairs are used by freshman college students who carry fountain pens instead of swords, books instead of powder horns, and slide rules instead of muskets.
The College first started as the New York Nautical School back in 1875, only a month or so after Congress had passed an act permitting the Navy to lend ships to coastal cities for the training of merchant seamen. On January 12, 1875, with the USS St. Mary’s, a square-rigged sloop-of-war serving as classroom, dormitory, mess hall, and gymnasium, the Nautical School laid down the gangway for its first class. The school ship was berthed at the foot of East 28th Street (near Bellevue Hospital), which was not the best of neighborhoods, but the boys who could “take it” became mariners; in fact, many of them became famous in maritime history.
Life aboard the school ship St. Mary’s was rugged. The boys worked fourteen hours a day, ate hardtack, drank black coffee sweetened with molasses, and bathed (regularly) in cold salt water. In long spells of bad weather they saw their fine, hard calluses turn to soggy, pallid sponges. Incidentally, the boys went barefoot while working on deck and climbing about the rigging. It was a healthy life in spite of the hardships and the boys were so constantly busy that they had little time to get into trouble. Although it was before the day of free college education in any field, school ship training came very close to being free. Upon enrolling, each boy had to pay twenty-five dollars, which sum (hold your breath, me hearties!) paid for one dress uniform, two white working uniforms, and foul weather gear, not to mention bedding, and a jackknife!
In 1908, after the St. Mary’s had trained hundreds of young men for the sea, she was retired and the USS Newport, a barkentine- rigged, auxiliary steam gunboat, became the all-in-one school. The Newport served as training ship for 23 years and then came the USS Procyon in 1931, which was renamed the Empire State.
The Empire State (ex-Procyon) was replaced in 1946 by the Empire State II, formerly the USS Hydrus (AKA-28). A 6,000-ton vessel with turbo-electric power, the Empire State II was a fine laboratory for both Deck (Marine Transportation) and Engine Cadets, during a crucial period in the life of the College; but increased enrollment necessitated a ship with greater berthing capacity. So, in the spring of 1956, the Maritime College acquired the USS Mercy, an Army Transport hospital ship. As the Empire Slate III, she carried the cadets and officers on their 1956 summer cruise to Bermuda, Le Havre, Goteborg, Copenhagen, London, and Cadiz.
Just as it was necessary to change ships, it has been feasible to change the name of the institution when new developments required new designations. The title New York Nautical School lasted thirty-eight years until 1913, when control of the school passed from the City of New York to the State of New York, and the school was renamed The New York State Merchant Marine Academy.
In 1937, after the long-neglected Fort Schuyler had received a thorough overhaul by the W.P.A., the New York State Merchant Marine Academy acquired the Fort and land for training Merchant Marine officers. In 1940 the course was lengthened from two to three years, but when World War II came, the program was accelerated to meet the emergency. Again in 1942, the name was changed, this time to The New York State Maritime Academy, the word “maritime” being somewhat more inclusive then “merchant marine,” and the change being justified by the granting of Naval Reserve commissions to the graduates. The practice continued with some modification until a few years ago, and those men who could meet the rigid physical requirements for naval officer candidates became Cadet- Midshipmen. Those who met the mental requirements, but could not meet the physical requirements for the Naval Reserve commission but could meet the less rigid ones of the Coast Guard, became Cadets and were not required to take Naval Science courses. Thus they were able to get a generous portion of “ivy” in lieu of the time otherwise spent on Naval Science.1
After the war, in 1946, the accelerated program reverted to the three-year course, and the New York State Board of Regents authorized the granting of the B.M.S. degree. Before the first B.M.S. candidates had graduated, still further upward revision was made—this time to a full four-year program. The entering class in 1948 embarked upon a four-year course leading to the degree of B.S. for the Deck (now called Marine Transportation), and the Bachelor of Marine Engineering degree for the engineers. Once more the name of the institution was changed. Its present title is The State University of New York Maritime College.
In every department there is a strong combination of the seaweed and the ivy; but, as would be expected, the most impressive mixture is in the two new ones, the Department of Humanities and Social Studies, and the Department of Science. The Head of Humanities and Social Studies Department is a Yale man and a Naval Reserve officer, with a doctor’s degree from Duke University. The Head of the Science Department, a Doctor of Science from M.I.T., served as a meteorologist in the U. S. Navy during World War II. The other men in these departments received their doctorates from various universities, but most of them have another alma mater, the U. S. Navy. These same men also serve as counsellors to activities typical of the ivy league colleges—Camera Club, Dance Committee, religious organizations, professional clubs, fraternities, and athletics. Every Cadet- Midshipman has some ivy league extracurricular activity. The point here is that the student at the Maritime College, in spite of many added professional duties, emerges with a well-rounded education and culture similar to that the student in a conventional college receives, plus the skills required by a Deck Officer or an Engineer in the Merchant Marine, in the Navy, or ashore.
Extra-curricular activities are popular and varied. If a student is interested in photography, he may become a member of the Camera Club. Dark room and developing equipment are available during the hours when classes are not in session; and he has an expert as faculty adviser on the technical as well as the artistic aspects of the work. The student interested in an international maritime fraternity may join the Propeller Club, the international status of which was established long ago by an alumnus of the College. If a man is interested in close-order precision drilling, he may join the Drill Team, trained by a former Chief Boatswain and sometimes by a Marine Corps Master Sergeant. The Glee Club is coached by an instructor in English who also strums a wicked “gittar.” Their repertoire ranges all the way from the “Whiffenpoof Song” of Yale to “Eternal Father Strong to Save,” which is one of the old stand-bys of seafaring men in a reverent mood, and in between are the always popular, rollicking sea chanteys. Stirring indeed it is to listen to these strong young voices as they pass from “the tables down at Morey’s” to “God bless the sailors on the sea.” Another musical organization on the Maritime College campus is the Music Club which meets weekly under the sponsorship of two members of the Humanities Department. The Reading Club reads anything and everything so long as it is good. There are no formal or pretentious reports, just quiet, informal—and thoroughly enjoyable— discussions of books.
Whatever the extra-curricular activity may be and however much it breathes of the ivy, the seaweed is always there. The cheer leaders go through their gyrations at the basketball games in the Armory, the 60- piece band plays its college songs and marching tunes; but during those hushed seconds when the foul shot is being tossed, the roar of the waves is not twenty yards away, and at Newport Field when a baseball player connects solidly with a low pitch the ball sometimes arches over the trees and drops into the sea.
There are two other elements of profound importance that have not yet been mentioned. These are a Humanities course (The Cultural Heritage of the Western World) and the International Relations Club. Both are closely related to the three-month training cruise that students are required to take every summer. The cruise itself is again both seaweed and ivy. When the students move aboard early in June, a part of the College Library is moved aboard with them. At sea, they learn ship operation in various phases, depending upon whether they are “deck apes” (candidates for the B.S. degree in Marine Transportation) or “grease monkeys” (candidates for the Bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering). The older students operate the ship while the greenhorns assist the experienced upperclassmen, but most important of all, they learn by doing.
It is while the ship is actually at sea that the first steps in Humanities 101 are taken. One of the older, more seasoned and more widely-traveled professors instructs the students in the history, art, customs, and monetary systems of the countries they will visit, also adding colorful details which reveal the character traits of the people themselves. On the aft area of the main deck on sunny days, in the mess hall when the weather is bad, even on the flying bridge or in the forecastle, the Cadets meet with their instructors. Before they set foot in a liberty port, these students know more about the countries they are visiting than the average American knows after an expensive tour. These young men in their neat, white summer uniforms have a fine understanding of the lands they visit. They are graciously received wherever they go, and they do not make the small errors by which Americans sometimes innocently offend the people of other countries. Some of the students make friendships that will continue as long as they live, and this holds true of the officers, also. In 1950 Captain Alfred F. Olivet, USNR, Commandant of Cadets and Skipper of the Empire State, was made a Knight of Galilee, one of the few sea captains to be thus knighted in the past four hundred years. Captain Olivet is a graduate of the old school ship.
The International Relations Club, started in 1954, is now coming of age. Distinguished foreign visitors who have been invited to meetings on the campus are now developing the pleasant habit of inviting club members to their homes or their places of business when in foreign lands. So the ivy pays off in tact and good will wherever the training ship goes, for the young men add to the balanced educational diet they have received at College the self-assurance and grace afforded by foreign travel. The results are satisfactory indeed. It is a safe bet that only a very small percentage of the average Ivy League college students are fortunate enough to be able to add foreign travel to their college education and most of this small percentage have had only one summer abroad. On the other hand, one hundred per cent of the Maritime College students have benefited from such travel—not just from one six-week trip, but from three three-month cruises to foreign lands.
A word about the curriculum. The ratio between professional and ivy subjects carries into the maritime field what M.I.T. has set as the ideal for the general technical field. About thirty per cent of the curriculum is devoted to liberal arts subjects, mostly in the fields of English (both composition and literature), mathematics, physics, economics, history, and foreign languages.2
The total enrollment at the College, as of August 30, 1956, was 493, with eleven men— previous “washouts” who have made up work in other colleges—applying for readmission. Five hundred students is about the top limit as far as facilities go. When they graduate, roughly one half of the men go to sea in the U. S. Navy or the Merchant Marine. The other half elect to work ashore in naval shipyards, the Bureau of Ships, the David Taylor Model Basin, or in the marine divisions of Westinghouse, General Electric, Allis-Chalmers, etc.
During the past three-quarters of a century, American shipping has been punctuated with the names of men from the New York Nautical School who have become great merchant seamen, adventurers, and explorers. Also, many a training ship boy went on to serve with distinction in the U. S. Navy. Others have served American shipping interests ashore. Some have even entered the learned professions. A sizeable number have built reputations that transcend the borders of our own land and extend to the world in general. One, Dr. Arthur M. Tode, 1912, served for years as international president of the Propeller Club, the most prominent seafaring club in the world. Another, Ross G. Marvin, 1902, was right- hand man to Peary in his voyage in search of the North Pole. Still others, Captain Manning and Captain Anderson, have skippered the great luxury liners America and United States.
Every port in the civilized world has seen men of the New York school ship in effective and competent action. They have been superbly trained for the sea and for generations the sea has felt the impact of these men from the seaweed and ivy halls of the New York State Maritime College.
1. Note: A revision of the naval status is now under study by both the Department of the Navy and the Maritime Administration.
2. Since this article was written, Mr. R. J. Reynolds has donated money for the construction of a planetarium. By taking advantage of space already excavated, the Maritime College will Ire able to construct one of the best planetaria in the East.