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

Page 29 text:

in fairly good shape, although Fleet and his battree ' lighnment had us stopped for awhile. The upper class seemed to have forgotten that we were now second jobs, as they concentrated all their energies on ti-ying to keep us in line, to the point of letting the youngies run wild. They realized their mistake only after it was a little, to late — -MUCH too late. But fall passed along, a little more pleasantly this year. Doc Quinlan and Bill Kelly again made a big hit in the football rallies, and the team responded to the school ' s support with one of their best seasons in years. The Ring Dance as usual was the big social event of the year, as Ted Braznicki will tell you, and a fine dance after the Maine game brought us out of that gunnery gloom for a few pleasant hours. We all managed to slide by our final exams, and soon we were off to dry- dock. Here we lost Old Bru , perhaps our most famous character. They say if all the people he owed something to gathered on one side of the vessel it would surely roll over, but, true or false, he was still a good friend and was missed by all. Much to our surprise the faithful Chun was ready to leave on schedule, and at the start of February we were off for Europe.

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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

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Duplicating our success of the previous year, we again tied up to an empty dock upon returning from Europe. But the word soon got around that the Cape Cod Casanovas were back from the hinterlands, and a goodly number of parents, as well as several lovlies were on hand to greet their boys when liberty finally went. With the possible exception of the duty section, everyone appeared happy. Once the semester started, we were again deluged with the subjcts — so many that several of the boys had to take off their shoes just to count the number. We found that the Naval Science Department still had a Gunnery course, and we still had to take it. The engineers had a really rough schedule, while the deckies had to play You Bet Your Weekend. Hurley — Rule 16. We also soon discovered that we had instructors of our own, as several of us were seen to wander out of the starboard shaft alley as if in a hypnotic trance, after a session with Prof. Doucet. The Baseball squad was a good reason to be really proud of our school, as they went out and brought us back a championship for the first half- season. A rowing squad made a brief but glorious appearance, when the engineers showed everyone that they, too, could heave those oars. Through the eiforts of Mr. Connors the intra-mural golf program was well rounded out.