Tag: star

kings point

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point Regiment of Midshipmen

Kings Point is a compact campus founded in 1943 on Long Island, New York. It is devoted to training future maritime leaders of the United States Merchant Marine. The Academy has about one thousand students altogether comprising of the Regiment of Midshipmen. These pages offer some primary source material for the study of the Regiment, and its culture and history.

When asked about how he heard about the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, a Cadet replied:

“I was an ordinary seaman with the U. S. Lines, and the director of unlicensed personnel told me about the Cadet Corps and he encouraged me to join the Corps.  I always thought Cadets were sissies, but I learned different when I joined.”

Regimental Culture & History

Albums, Collections & Photographs

Matters Uniform

Publications

col.: AMMM

Miscellany

The bane of midshipmen from the 1950s through the early 1970s.

ats, nts, msts & msc

The United States Army’s experience in troop transport during the Spanish-American War was dismal at best.  The United States Navy could not help to move men and material since its function was limited to being seaborne gun platforms, and many of the contractors the Army relied upon turned tail at the last moment.  To control the logistics process, the Army embarked upon building and maintaining its own permanent fleet.  The Army Transport Service (ATS), which was later restyled as the Army Transportation Corps – Water Division (ATC-WD) in the middle of the Second World War, became the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) when it merged with its analog, the Naval Trasport Service (NTS) immediately post-war.  In the 1970s it was rebranded as the Military Sealift Command (MSC). Through each of its iterations, civilians always manned these ships. Interestingly, there has always been continuity in the civilian mariners’ uniform insignia providing hints to the organization’s origin.  The following are some pages regarding “The Army’s Navy” and its successors.

The Ghost Fleet

A T S  &  A T C – W D

N T S

M S T S  &  M S C

Collection entries

united states maritime service

Not many people know what to make of today’s United States Maritime Service (USMS).  At the United States Merchant Marine Academy, midshipmen call it the “United States Mystery Service” since many had not heard of it prior to enrollment at Kings Point. There’s a bit more to it than that: it is, in its own words, “a uniformed, semi-military, organization.” With the reorganization of the uniformed services in the late-1950s, the USMS was not included; it remained and is a “uniformed civil service.”

Posts & Pages

mm dsm recipient photographs
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
united states maritime service: an introduction
usms publications
usms rates, 1945
usmm uniforms: slate gray uniform, 1943
usmma uniforms: service dress khaki 1960-1970
NOMMP not USSB
A mysterious old photograph
usms uniforms: enlisted & unlicensed trainees
usms cap badges
usms shoulder boards
mm dsm citations
mm dsm roll of honor
usms garrison caps
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer

Collection items

seaman’s identification wallets & fink books

More often than not, when the dust settled merchant seamen tended not to speak about The War, leaving their children and grandchildren to wonder about their service to the country. Oftentimes, tucked away in an old trunk or in a box they left behind clues, such as a U.S. Department of Commerce “Seaman’s Identification Wallet.” These thick black oilskin wallets embossed with a twin-stacked steamship or a four funnel liner held a seamen’s work history and identity documents – from their discharge slips, Seaman’s passport, to award cards. Sometimes they might have a prayer or a photo of a loved one inside. These wallets had a chain on them to be linked to a seaman’s belt loop – that way, if the owner was blown overboard, their documents would go with them.

Other indicators of a life on the sea were union books and the once-hated Continuous Discharge Book. The latter was derisively called a “fink book” by the more militant union rank and file. Fink books could hold secret markings by masters upon pay off stating whether or not a seaman was a troublemaker, thus affecting future impartial employment and the use of the rotary system of ship assignment. Or at least that was the fear. Many books may have had a single entry during the course of the war – some mariners signed on to a single ship and it sailed to and fro for the duration. After that, short-timers left the industry, leaving this singular record for others to ponder.

Irving Nachwalter
Anthony J. Morengo

polar exploration

The British and American enterprise to explore the Antarctic has always been a source of fascination for me. As a young child, I was always interested to hear about sailors who came back from Operation Deep Freeze, and as a teen, I daydreamed over books about Scott, Amundson, and Shackelton and their daring adventures at the South Pole. I have a few pages which detail various aspects of that interest as they relate to matters maritime.

RRS Shackleton plaque
RRS John Biscoe, Signy Base & King Edward Cove 1960s
British Antarctic Survey

seaman albums, scrapbooks & mementos

Scrapbooks and snapshots capture ephemeral moments and act as sentinels for memory. In the period between the wars, scrapbooking was a great American pastime with families collecting bits and pieces of their lives to memorialize; this cultural phenomenon was not lost on members of the military or seafaring professions. During the Second World War, ever present aboard ships, training stations, and at the maritime academies were shutterbugs and official photographers taking photographs and others carefully pasting, taping, or hinging memories away.

When I look at these ephemera and photographs, it helps me create a pastiche of the time and the lives of those on the sea during the war years.

★ signifies collection is online.

crossing the line

One of my favorite things to think about is the ritual process where individuals pass from one state to another. We have our sweet sixteens, confirmations, baptisms, graduation ceremonies, inductions into secret societies, and so forth. We have markers – some permanent, others not – when we change from one status to another. Some societies tattoo to indicate these changes; ours hands out certificates or other tokens.

Shipboard life is a microcosm of the society from which the sailors come. Traditions such as these speak of how power has the threat of real physical violence behind it and when violence, even in play is acted upon, an individual’s social body – their person – is molded, for good or bad.

Below find various photographs, certificates, and tokens from Crossing the Line ceremonies – one the most marked of rituals participated by generations of seafarers over the centuries. In this ceremony, they venture into the topsy-turvy and enter the realm of Neptunus Rex.

TS Empire State 1930s

At some point during one of its cruises, cadets from the New York State Merchant Marine Academy crossed the line. Their hijinx were recorded by a staff member. Clearly visible are the running of the pollywogs, the ritual shaving, and the summons before King Neptune’s court; these photographs are part of a larger collection found here.

USS Santa Fe 1943

These photographs capture a “Crossing the Line” ceremony that took place onboard an American destroyer during the Second World War. In the midst of war and despite the potential for death at the hands of the enemy, the sailors re-enacted a ceremony passed down for centuries from sailor to sailor. The ceremony is bizarre: when a ship crosses the Equator, the ship stops and pays homage and fealty to King Neptune. He comes aboard and men who have Crossed the Line before, and along with Neptune’s Court initiate the men as his subjects. The pollywogs, as the uninitiated are called, are humiliated at every turn: they are shaven, spanked, and have their masculinity is challenged; finally, after further degradation in a watery pool, they are reborn as “Trusty Shellbacks” and pledge loyalty to King Neptune and join in fraternity with their fellow sailors. The ceremony crosses all lines of rank and class – from captain to mess-man.

A participant’s “War Book” is here.

fort schuyler

Fort Schuyler is the home of the State University of New York Maritime College, commonly known as SUNY Maritime. The school has had many names through the years, among them New York State Nautical School, New York State Merchant Marine Academy, and New York State Maritime Academy; I find it convenient to call it Fort Schuyler – its permanent home since 1929.

NameAbbreviationDates
New York State Nautical SchoolN.Y.S.N.S.1847-1929
New York State Merchant Marine AcademyN.Y.S.M.M.A.1929-1941
New York State Maritime AcademyN.Y.S.M.A1941-1948
State University of New York Maritime CollegeSUNY Maritime1948-present
All the names.

Below please find various pages with content devoted to or with content pertaining to Fort Schuyler’s cadets or faculty.

empire state 1932-1933
crossing the line
fort schuyler cadet corps uniform notes
buttons
usmma james harvey tomb chapeau
the saga of fort schuyler
William Tillman, Jr.
suny insignia

us army corps of engineers

dredge personnel

The U.S. Army once had a fleet of ships that rivaled that of the U.S. Navy.   With the merge of the U.S. Army-managed Army Transport Service and its successor organizations with that of the U.S. Navy, Navy Transport Service into the U.S. Military Sea Transportation Service in the late-1940s, one of the few U.S. Army waterborne activities remaining was that of the Floating Plant and Dredge & Lock personnel attached to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Below is a recruitment booklet circa 1960s.

Blog Posts

Collection entries

united states lines

I had the unique opportunity to visit the United States Lines Archive at the American Merchant Marine Museum at Kings Point. There, I was able to view documents and photographs just as they were being cataloged and some in an unorganized state.  This page lists some of the topics related to USL I explored and continue to research.  I am still in the process of drawing a complete fleet list and sketching USL’s wartime activities – the company truly was unique and holds a key position in U.S. maritime history.

Ships and Mariners

Corporate Identity & History

Blog Posts

Collection Items