SUNY Maritime College - Eight Bells Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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HOME - - - Standing together in the face of time firsitl class. we came to know each other t roug association,-in class, during weekend restrrci tions, in the highly competitive intramura sports, and hy virtue of a few good, though Slightly degeneratingfliherties. Slowly the an to fuse together and to develop the elan that was to characterize it in crises in the years ahead. More and more was un- derstood the significance of the term ship- class heg mate. Of the class legends many deserve tell- ing, hut space doesn't permit the inclusion of more than a few. Une, which transpired during the mug year, is worthy. While within the deck curriculum, we were suhject, several times each week, to classes in Rules of the Nautical Road. This course was classic in content and its instruc- tor renowned for his unique presentation. One day, after droning on interminahly, he suddenly paused, cocked his head and said: Toot-toot. What am I doing, Cadet Pali- otta? Jerhed out of his lethargy, Cadet Pali- otta recovered and replied: Going off your rocker! He resigned a month later to re- eniist in the Marine Corps. During the fall and early months of the succeeding year, attention was turned to the haslcethau team, the colleges hig varsity sport. Included on the team which racked UD a .700 won-lost average were Classmates Ed Przyhylshi, Don Van Wart, Junior Reich, Don Talhot and Joe O'DonneH. At- tendance at home games was greatly urged, In fact, for fourth ciassmen, it was compul- SOTY- I rememher watching one game one eye on the court and the other on my ,note- Eiwgg Eiligli Studying FOI: an hour exam sched- e next morning. The g'ame of the yield was with KinQS Point, the first sched- u e contest of the series. Despite their hun- dreds of cadets so far they have heen unahle to field a team capahle of matching eurs, We clohhered them every time, each V. heing celehrated hy an overnight iihertchiry the corps. In a festive mood on a fit-or occasion many were the cadets who Cri EVE themselves manfuuy. pp e Christmas leave and the precedi Christmas party. Who will forget that onng? All evening, the hallowed hails echoed wit, joie de vivre, the screams and hiasphemie of showered first classmen. Then, at ta? the Cindereuaish reversion to the status qgo, After final exams occurred the intrai mural event of the year-the cadet Hsmok, ers. Gur stahie was very good that year. There were Jim Carneu, Pat Lucci, Don Lyons, Bells Bihier, Red Siegier, Bill Doughty, Tom Leather, the Hothern Tom Kennedy, Boh Hinideman among others. Almost to a man the Corps turned out to see some epic hattles: Red Siegier hounding across the ring to meet the ever popular Freddy West who lasted ahout forty-tive seconds, the pier sixer staged hy Tom Leather and Tom Kennedy. lr was then that we hecame aware of Ken Bihler's lethal potentiahties. The year worked through itself and the mass succumhing to the languor that accom- panies spring. Texts lost whatever charm and enchantment they may have possessed to the passion for hridge that had developed, or to endless hours of idle speculation con- cerning the forthcoming cruise to Northern Europe. We waited, cognizant of the omi- nous rumhlings from the First Class about HVVait,H-the-cruise, curious ahout the Sec- ond ciass' hianh detachment concerning the whole thing. Later, we were to learn wht?- RBTRP B a brief Dance. Gorge. original rrorimr less tt rest hr picked Hare v we slr minds about onto U and I than l You I rrrh lark.

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were many who must go unmen- There , A though not unrememloered nor un- hone l- t J Two who stand forth particu- aPP'eC'a e ' L, si. 1. F- Iarly were Ed Walsh and Bo an , rrst Class troopers. Few will .forget Vvalshs lumbering approach to life, the casual ellished ,lay well directed salvos of spit, He was famed for many things, Chief amgng them his discourses on the Charms of one-legged women: once, in a run- ning lmoat, he is reputed to have paniclced the quarterdeclc of the Empire State g when he answered the COD's hail with HUnited Statesn: on cruise, no lilnerty was complete unless he ended the evening's festivities hy changing hurners in 'dress lolues, a practice that hecame hy no means uncommon in the class of 1952. On the Riviera during a train- ing cruise, he is reported to have returned to the hoat landing, slightly under the influ- ence of and greatly overleave, to find the running hoats secured for the night. Strip- ping off his dress whites, preparatory to the long swim haclc, he piled them neatly on the heach along with the laconic note which read: They wear hetter starcheclf' Bch Shanlc could tall: the dead from their graves. A glihly discomforting cadet, his ferret eyes missed few unclerclass infrac- tions. The pap, however, was a minor part of the punishment. First and foremost was the withering sarcasm that wilted the most sell-righteous. However, quite often he uti- lized his talents constructively. Once, though the occasion escapes me, l watched him wallc unarmed and alone into a room full of un- clerclassmen, dangerously militant and close to mutiny. When he left, arm in arm with several ringleaders, honne foi pervaded eVeTYWhere, and the rest followed as happily HS the children of Hamlin followed the piper apl0ITllJ emb -'also to eventual and complete disillusion- ment. There was always method in his mad- ness. THE DAZE 1948 And' Of COUFSC, the sight of the weelq was the diminutive hoy Batt Comman Riclcey Olmstead, peach fuzzed, piilg cheelcecl, and laden with the gold of his office Striding manfully after the comparatively Herculean Admiral Leary, during Saturday morning inspections, With one eye coclced toward the First class, we directed the other toward academic endeavors. For the first time, the mug year was considered common, one half the Class Specializing in declc courses, the other half in engineering: and hoth switching at the end of the first semester. Thus it was hoped that we would all hecome familiar with the fundamentals of each specialty While acquiring an awareness of the sepa- rate prolalems involved. The nohle intent behind all this was to lay the lnasis for great- er future cooperation hetween cleclc and engine officers of the merchant marine hy encouraging reciprocal sympathy. The suh- sequent passage of time was to prove this program, initially, a notalole waste of time. Engineers or cleclc hands too often remem- herecl nothing hut the unpleasantness of the laranch they had forsalcen, and the age old rivalry hetween usnipesn and Hapesntwas re- newed with increased acrimony in the years that followed. , ln no time at all we were hoclc high in studies--calculus, physics, naval machinery, naval science, naval architecture, English, history, besides others that temporarily es- cape recollection. Vve were none too gently booted onto the academic road hy such per- sons as Salty who, calling us a dozen dif- ferent ancl assorted lcinds of idiots, com- manded us to hegin to commence. Then there was urfwinlcletoesn and the Boy Wonder, The Good Doctor and Wild Bill, HEgghead and ulVlumlJles, ' Bunlcy. George, Rumpty Goo and Chief McAl- lister, who defied a PSCUCl0nYln5 lntfir there were Stewie and the Flipper, Jungle Jim and the Gee The overall effect and reaction varied. Some hreezed througll to 5-0 with regal Clis' daing a few others couldn't malce it. The lg d l'lc field hands majority, however, wor e I C on tight production schedules and squeezed through with margins to Spare' Close to despair at times, came final exams and we foung the Gods had loeen inlinite in their mercies.

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7 , ., .., -'f fn., . -' A ..', ff' ' ' . '.'7'vff. ' 1,f,,:- M - ,. -. ' . of fn I ' .' 'Y' H.. - M' -QAM H f' ,ff f' -- - , 1 ' W H mx W . -r ,M ' H 'f M-I ,.,,',,:f , M f' -fy' ..,,,,... ,, .,, ' ' I , , -wa,-W, ME MUG CRUISE NE day in June, after linal exams and a brief leave punctuated by the Pre-Cruise Dance, the class of 1952 fell in, in the lnner Gorge, and answered to muster. Qi the original one hundred and seventy-eight, ap- proximately one hundred twenty remained. Less than two dozen had liunl-ced outg the rest had decided it all wasn't for them, had PiClfCf-l up their marbles and left. Vve may have wished them a quiet word of luclc as We stood there, but foremost in our own minds were our own troubles which were a out to begin. As we marched down and OH? the Pier, the First Class, lining the brow HE T36 maindeclc railing, saw us and c eere , Y In essence, the mug cruise is simple. OU have been provided to labor and learn, yfftll lfeaw emphasis on the former, the lat- er emg ln the nature of an extra curricular andthY- find labor we did, for ourselves surpri eds IP- Vile lioged into our quarters, Se atwat a been ltd d , accumu a e dgxzigljhe Course of the year. While bur- 1g,..,.3nZZf1h.T,ZTZifmS i3', , ,f tea' O my 0 - forth l would have no m ha encfd be neatl H ore gear t an cou bag It Y T0 fd and crammed into one sea- ' WaSI1t until the last day of the last cr ' , Tse that I reallzed my ambition and then 22133 deep smug half of what 1 had had activit 0 . . ur IWIHQ quarters were definitely eng 5 out of Better Homes and Gar- ' tacked four high and with one Somethin d ,, washbasin provided for every ten men, and with all the choice intimacy thereby entailed, we reveled in luxury. Scattered amongst us were upper classmen who lorded with a heavy hand. Speaking of being staclced four high reminds me of Jalce Martens. Now Jalce, to outward appearances, is a quiet boy, slightly inclined to boolcishness and devoted to learning, a fine and noble thing in itself. In fact if ever anyone decided to burn all the Almanacs for the benefit of manlcind or any other devious reason, he may well have to begin with Jalce. During our eastward crossing, Jalce devoted himself to learning Dutch, which he succeeded in mastering, being somewhat well grounded in German. This he did in what little spare time We had when most of us succumbed to exhaustion or crawled into an obscure corner to exist quietly for a moment or two. On liberty, Jalce usually cut out on his own to visit points of historic interest. During these forays, he invariably met friends who would treat him with the utmost kindness, and upon returning to the ship overwhelmed by his good fortune, he would squat on the deck to write voluminous bread and butter notes. At that point, in would roll the infamous trio who saclced immediately above him: Marv Kuhn, Wally lVlacRae, and Jerry Rooney. After every liberty, these three would hold a long-lost reunion in upper one, I dl proclaiming on the virtues and vices MHCRHC would HTQUCQ KUllH WOIIICI