FSMAA & the State University of New York Maritime College

5/21/13

On the occasion of Plaque Dedication at the US Navy Memorial, Washington, DC

Since its inception on October 21, 1903, our Alumni Association has existed to provide “encouragement” and the “wise counsel of older seafaring men” to assist the worthy individuals who devote their time and talents to equip young people “for the calling of the sea.” Another purpose articulated at that time was to “assist the young graduate entering upon a career…”

At the time of that writing, our school was a specialized New York City High School, having been in existence aboard borrowed U.S. Navy warships for 29 years, and having no permanent land base. It was an educational experiment, and the first of its kind in North America.

While the bare essentials and basic outline of the institution hasn’t changed in its essence since that time, the school has, of course, undergone transformative development, evolution, and growth. True to the founding purposes of our Alumni Association, much of that evolution and growth was initiated or spurred on, over the course of the 20th Century, by our Alumni Association. This includes numerous things taken for granted today, such as:

Granting 3rd Mate and 3rd Assistant Engineer Licenses to graduates immediately upon graduation (became the law during WWI, following several years of Alumni Association advocacy);
Transition from sail to mechanically propelled training ships;
Granting of baccalaureate degrees;
Permanently obtaining the school’s land base at Ft. Schuyler as a perpetual home for the school.

Another major initiative of your Alumni Association was successfully undertaken precisely 100 years ago. Following several years of poor management of the New York Nautical School, which resulted in a cycle of falling enrollment, rising cost per student, and cost cutting measures driving still more students away, by the end of 1912, the New York City Board of Education, the school’s steward, had had enough. At the time, no one serving on the Board of Education committee in charge of the school had a maritime background; this condition was contributing to the problems. At this time, the Board of Education moved to petition the New York State Government for permission to abandon the school and return the training ship, the auxiliary sailing gunboat, USS Newport, to the Navy.

Consequently, at the beginning of 1913, your Alumni Association stepped in. A coalition of interests supporting the school, many of which are still in business today and including the Navy League, was assembled by the Alumni Association. The Governor at the time, William Sulzer, was a former Congressman who had supported the Maritime industry while in Congress.

Realizing that the State of New York had a much larger population from which to draw recruits, and far greater financial resources than the City of New York, the Alumni Association set about orchestrating a state takeover of the school. The Governor lent his support to this effort.

Meeting with, and gaining the support of the then Mayor of New York, the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors was able to have action stopped on the Board of Education sponsored state bill, and have an amended version issued. This bill, which became Chapter 321 of the Laws of 1913 of New York State, gave the New York City Board of Education “discretion” to close the school.

The Alumni Association’s Board of Directors then drafted what became Chapter 322 of the Laws of 1913, establishing the New York State Nautical School. This bill was introduced into the legislature in the spring of 1913 and was enacted on April 17, 1913 and was to become effective upon action by the New York City Board of Education to close the school.

Subsequently, between May and July of 1913, agreement was reached between the Board of Education, the Governor’s Office, and the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, regarding details of the transfer of the operation of the school and USS Newport.

And on November 1, 1913, in an elaborate shipboard ceremony celebrated at a Manhattan pier, which was reported in the popular press throughout New York City and New York State, as well as the maritime trade press of the day, the New York Nautical School became the New York State Nautical School, thus preserving the school as a National asset for future generations until this day.