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

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Somehow the main body of us did manage to survive our first semester as College Freshmen. After all we did have a lot of laughs, especially from the football rallies, which gave us a chance to let off steam without paying for it later. Several members of the class performed so well that they were called back for encores throughout their entire three years at school. AT last final exams rolled around, and right after the first of the year we set off for Boston and drydock. All we have memories of while there are bitter cold days, the Telephone Building, and watch IPs extra long duty — they still can ' t figure out why they kept having power failures on the gravity life-boats. We were held up almost a full month in the shipyard, because the Coast Guard had us put new life boats — (the bathtubs) — on the ship to meet the safety requirements. There was also much work done in the engine room. On the twenty-eighth of February, heading into a bliz- zard, we pointed our bow South, and started at last on our Youngie Cruise. Unfortunately we found the Cape Cod College of Nautical Knowledge exactly as we had left it. The same was found to be true about Buzzards

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September 1, 1951 — And where are you going to school, Joe? Oh, I got a swell deal down to the state maritime Academy — all my weekends off and a cruise for three months of the year — I ' m really all set. Get me another frostee, will you baby? September 3, — But, sir, one of these hats is much too big for me. That ' s all right, they shrink. Well that ' s fine, sir, except this other hat is three sizes too small. Don ' t worry; they stretch too — September 7 — Look, honey, they just told me that I ' ve got the duty this weekend, so I won ' t be home to see you. Have a nice year and I ' ll see you about Christmas . . . And so the sixty-six odd youngsters were initiated into the life of a sailor. After a week of comparative quiet, the upper jobs came swooping down with a vengeance, and so the dismal days of indoctrination began. Class spirit was high, and we united together as we never would again in order to better bear the brunt of the upper jobs attacks. Almost daily we mourned the passing of yet another classmate, ' til finally we began to wonder if perhaps they were right — and we wrong. We did not realize at the time that we would have a chance to be on the other side of the fence, giving it out — but that comes later.

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1. 1 Gulch. We felt pretty good for about a week, sporting our deep tans to the family, but it was just too good to last. The upper jobs commenced a final big push, along with a few skirmishes from the second jobs, and again we pulled our heads in to weather the storm. But we were just getting sick of being pushed around, and the day of reckoning was in the not-to-distant future. We planned a few retaliations of our own. Along about the middle of July we turned the valve. There was a lot of moaning and groaning on both sides, but we held firm, and soon vic tory was ours. Cigarette sales in the class went down 50% . Labor Day and graduation, leaves, exams, and new youngies arrived much sooner than thought possible, and the next thing we knew we were second classmen. Now we were custodians of the watch-clock and the coifee pot. Both went through the hardships of being used by unseasoned hands, as the watch-clock gave up three times in as many weeks, and the coffee pot continually bubbled over — but not with enthusiasm. Introduction to Naval Ordnance and Gunnery the schedule said, but it should have been more like Complete Course on How to Stay Up Late and NOT have a Good Time. All in all, Owen ' s Kadet Korp managed to survive