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

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THE ACADEMY The academic course was shortened to eighteen months and the Nantucket was retired to spend the rest of her days at the United States Maritime Academy at Kings ' Point, New York. To accommodate the influx of new men into the school, the Academy came ashore and was settled into buildings at Hyannis on Cape Cod, in July, 1942. The training cruises were made in Maritime Commission ships, running short hauls along the coast. Throughout the war, Massachusetts produc- ed a goodly number of well-trained, well- equipped men for the U. S. Navy and Mer- chant Service, whose records proved Mass- achusetts ' graduates far and away the best among the other Maritime schools. With the war won, Massachusetts expan- ed and lengthened the academy curriculum to a three year course, awarding a Bachelor of Science degree in Navigation and in Engi- neering to graduates. In addition, each grad- uate received a Naval Reserve commission and his Coast Guard license. The new school ship, the Charleston, PG-51, was the Academy ' s first since the Nantucket was retired in 1941. The mid- shipmen first boarded her in San Francisco in 1948. They sailed her proudly home through the Panama Canal, up the Atlantic seaboard, and to her new berth at the State Pier in Buzzards Bay. Plans for expanding the Academy ' s physi- cal plant were formulated and they went ahead at first in grand style, but then were stalled in a myriad of State and Federal red tape. Finally, in 1955, the State appropriated money to begin the construction of adequate facilities. So with this, the first concrete action after many hopes and promises, the Class of 1956 leaves the school with the pros- pect of returning in a few years to a larger and better Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

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