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

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HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY- In 1891, the Massachusetts Nautical School, forerunner of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, was established. At .that time, the bark Enterprise served as the training ship for young men aspiring to follow the sea. M any of these men have gone on to become leaders in the maritime field. A new training ship, the barkentinc RANGER , was acquired from the U. S. Navy in 1909. This vessel, later renamed the NANTUCKET , carried the cadets of the Massachusetts Nautical School to the four corners of the world as good will ambassadors of their country. After World War I, the Nautical School began to find itself getting behind the times, but the proud Nancy , as she was called, continued to traverse the oceans of the world for two more decades, despite numerous at- tempts to abolish the school during the depression. But once again as the dark clouds of war began to gather, Massachusetts was called upon to supply the sea with the men who make our Merchant Marine and Navy the greatest in the world. To keep pace with this ever increasing demand, the buildings and facilities of the shore base was established. The course was necessarily shortened, and every eighteen months a new group of young officers took their places in the U. S. Merchant Marine as graduates of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. At the end of the war, the course was lengthened to three years, and additional sub- jects were introduced so that the graduates could take with them a college degree, in ad- dition to their Naval Reserve commissions and Merchant Marine licenses. In 1948 the gunboat CHARLESTON was acquired and, in an effort to bring ship and school closer together, the Academy was moved to the State Pier in Buzzards Bay where the ship could be berthed. Shore facilities were improved, but whether this will become a permanent base or not is something that time alone will determine. Whatever the future holds for our Acad- emy, it is the sincere belief of every young man who has had the good fortune to be one of her graduates that she will continue to up- hold the traditions of the state of Massachu- setts by producing many of the finest seafarers in the world.

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EDITORIAL Now that we have nearly attained the goal for which we have been striving these past three years, we find that, as a whole, we have changed in many ways. We are leaving the Academy as men. We entered as boys. We are no longer schoolboys with responsibilities only to our studies, we are men going out into the world not only with a responsibility to ourselves, but with an even greater re- sponsibility to the Academy than we ever felt during our years here. We are-graduates of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and as such, we have an inescapable duty to perform. There are many men who are satisfied to continually criticize and tear down, while never offering a substantial suggestion to improve. Let us not be classed as such. Certainly, we have criticized harshly many aspects of our life at the Academy, but now that we are to be public representatives of the Academy, let us go out and uphold the proud reputation which has been earned for the Academy by the many who have gone before. It is as much our Academy as it is theirs, and we can look back with pride upon our heritage. Our instructors and officers have done all in their power to make men of us, quite often to our momentary displeasure, but neverthe- less, they have succeeded. The factors which have entered into our education have been many and diverse, some of which we will never be aware of, and some of which we are only too aware. We have been fortunate to have experienced this training. The Academy has helped each of us, now it becomes fitting for us to help the Academy, and we will do so by word, action, and example. THE EDITORS