United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

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 “The sea is our life. Our life is the world.” The aver- age mid- shipman at Kings Point will travel 40,000 nau- tical miles in about 300 days and visit at least 10 coun- tries, before he or she turns 21! Sea Year consists of two, 6 month periods that midshipmen (this refers to women also) travel aboard different vessels in the American Merchant Marine, which range from tankers carry- ing olive oil to general cargo ships carrying lumber and raw rubber. What do we do for 12 months? Well, it’s hard to con- vey the things we do, even using pictures. It’s even harder to ex- plain the extreme conditions we live under sometimes, like to work 16-18 hours in the engine room when the ship is pounding in the middle of a storm, and to have sweat off 5 pounds of wa- ter, only to go back to your room to find it in chaos from the ships pitching; or to have to go through 40 pitch black, cargo holds (twice) and every compart- ment on the ship searching for a stowaway that had been locked up, but that had escaped from his room through a porthole that he broke the night before. We found out what it’s like to tie a ship up when it’s snowing out, having to hold wet lines when you can’t feel your fingers; or to walk down a dusty road in Alexandria, Egypt, lined with beggars and crumbling houses (in the middle of the city) and to have more money in your pocket that any given family on the street sees in a year ( $100); or to nearly pass out in the bottom of an empty, 100 foot deep gas- oline tank on a tank ship; or to be told that you are going to Afri- ca for your last four months of Sea Year, but then be told when you get to Africa, that your ship is going around the world and that you’ll be 2 weeks late to school. We’ve met strangers who were willing to help us with a smile, for nothing, in a port that we didn’t speak the language (most ports), and we’ve met people poor enough to eat raw grain off the docks, drink the water drain- ing off the ships decks and beg for the shoes we were wearing. I don’t know how many count- less times I’ve seen old-timers immammmt come out to watch a sunset at sea, with the intrigue and fasci- nation as if it was their first time. Maybe this is because you re- main young in mind living at sea. Each day is a new experience, with an element of mystery in it. Perhaps what keeps some sail- ors from going ashore perma- nently is that they find a peace at sea that can’t be found any- where else in this world. These are the experiences that we, as Kings Pointers, go through, which few people ever go through. Our experiences have finely honed our senses and skills. We have developed a professional attitude, and seem able to set and achieve remark- ably high personal goals. The world truly is our campus, our playground. There is no doubt that each picture of Sea Year is a chapter of a midship- man’s life at Kings Point, a chap- ter that only he can tell. Within these pages are the places, peo- ple, and ships of our Sea Year, and are, at most, a few minutes of history frozen in time. I doubt that there is a Kings Pointer alive today that doesn’t grasp at all that life has to offer. Perhaps these pictures will show you why. 20