United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

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Kings Point Builds Too Fulton Hall under construction. CCC shacks in background housed Cadets while permanent buildings were being erected. Partly completed Academy seen from the air in February of 1943. Buildings between Barney Square and the Oval served as barracks. In order to meet wartime needs, the course of study was reduced to 18 months. From January of 1942 to January of 1943 the Cadet Corps grew from 411 to 4638 men. Coaling the old EMERY RICE. This gallant vessel served both as a training vessel and as a barracks for 100 Cadets. She made weekly cruises up and down Long Island Sound on which many a Cadet got his first taste of seafaring. 11

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The Cadet Corps of the youngest Federal Academy did not have to wait long to see action. On November 8, 1941, two Cadets on board the CITY OF RAYVILLE were rescued after their ves- sel was sunk by a floating mine. Merchant vessels ven- tured out on the seas un- armed, singly and in convoy, and maintained the lifeline to the Allies. The sea lanes to Britain and Murmansk are littered with those ships which lost in the war against the U-boats. Two-hundred and eleven Cadets and graduates, on ships such as these, lost their lives during the war. WAR Industry, government, and the will of the American people combined to launch thousands of bigger, better, and faster ships; ships to carry the tools of war from the “Arsenal of Democracy” to the hands of the fight- ing man, ships to carry food and clothing to the Allies, ships to keep the hope of victory alive. New construction methods mass-produced ships faster than the U-boats could sink them. Shipbuliding time was cut from three months to a few weeks. One vessel, the Liberty Ship ROBERT E. PEARY, was launched only 4 days, 15 hours, and 30 minutes after her keel was laid. 10

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Cadets celebrating the Permanency Act. Accreditation and Permanency With the return of peace, the United States again faced the same problem it was confronted with after World War I—a surplus of ships. Fortunately, the provisions of the Shipping Act of 1936 enabled steamship operators to keep some 1800 vessels in serv- ice. Not since the days of the clipper ships had so many modern American vessels sailed the high seas in competition with the carriers of foreign nations. It was realized that the Cadet Corps and its graduates were to play an ever increasingly important role in this move forward. To meet this challenge, the Academy at Kings Point returned to a four year curric- ulum which introduced courses in humanities, the social sciences, and the economics of shipping. Facilities for the teaching of those professional subjects which had been stressed during the war were expanded so that training would be up-to-date with the technological advances in the maritime industry. As a result of these efforts, the Academy was formally accredited in 1949, and authorized to grant a Bachelor of Science degree to its graduates. On February 7, 1956, the Cadet Corps and its backers won a 10-year fight to put a bill through the Congress which made Kings Point a permanent institution with the same status as the other Federal Academies. Until this time, the Cadet Corps had existed on a year-to-year basis under the direction of the Maritime Administration. 12