Massachusetts Maritime Academy - Muster Yearbook (Buzzards Bay, MA)

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MAURICE J. TOBIN GDVERNDR THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE HOUSE, BOSTON December 20, 1945 Members of the Class of 1946: I am very happy to extend the greetings of the Commonwealth and to offer my personal congratulations to the members of the 1946 graduating class of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, an institution which I consider one of our most valuable educational facil- ities. From the beginnings of Colonial history, the name of Massachusetts has been synonymous with maritime activity. Our early shipbuilders, captains, and crews established illustrious reputations. Throughout the succeeding generations those splendid traditions have been maintained and even enhanced by sturdy and venture- some sons of the Bay State. Now, in our own day, the responsibility of adding to the prestige of Massachusetts on the seas of the world is being assumed by well equipped young men of the type that make up your Class of 1946. As you leave the Maritime Academy to enter upon useful and honorable careers, you take with you the cordial best wishes of all the citizens of Massachusetts. I am confident that every success will be yours in the years that lie ahead, and that you will realize in your own lives the truth of the philosophy so aptly phrased by the eminent historian, Samuel Eliot Morrison: The bounty of the ocean is reserved for those who have the wit to learn her secrets, the courage to bear her buffets, and the will to persist, through good fortune and ill, in her rugged service. Page HI recit

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To the Class of 1946: You arc going down to the sea in ships at a most critical time in our nation ' s history. We have icon the war, now toe must learn how to live in peace, in order that the war may not have been a meaningless sacrifice. The part o) the Merchant Marine has been a vital one in this war. Its peacetime role will be no less important. As our ships have carried the men and materials oj war, so must ice depend upon them to carry the food and the tools needed to rebuild and revitalize the world. You will officer the ships that have this tremendous task laid out for them. Your skill and your diligence will deter- mine how that lash will be done. You are fighting your country ' s battle no less than did those who have fought so well during these past war years. We have tried to give you the basic training you need to begin your sea careers. From now on. it is your duty to apply these skills as best you can to the work ahead. It will be your responsibility to preserve the high reputation oj I he American seaman, and add to the proud record, your own achievements. You will cany the flag to the ends oj the earth. We wisli you a fair passage, a taut shif), and good holding ground when you are at your last anchorage. CLAUDE (). BASSET T, Commodore, USNR Page Thirteen