Four Years Before the Mast: A History of New York's Maritime College

by Joseph A. Williams

Under New York City's Throgs Neck Bridge lies a spit of land dominated by a pentagonal, 19th-century fortress that today houses a school that has trained mariners since the age of sail. Within Fort Schuyler's walls are stories of heroism and mutinies, shipwrecks and desertions. In Four Years Before the Mast, author Joseph A. Williams tells the tale of that institution known today as SUNY Maritime College. The story begins during the age of sail when disaster and mutiny created a new demand for trained mariners. In response, in 1873, New York State established a nautical school under the auspices of the New York City Board of Education. Originally based aboard the square-rigged sloop-of-war St. Mary's, the school taught boys to run the rigging, tie knots, holystone the decks, and navigate on yearly cruises across the Atlantic. In its beginning in the 19th century, the school was constantly confused for a reformatory where "bad boys were made good." Because of its cost, it was seen as a symbol of government waste, and its opponents repeatedly tried to shut it down. But despite the criticisms, the school survived and its tough training practices created generations of gallant sea officers who led the American merchant fleet into the modern world. In 1938, after a bruising political battle with Robert Moses, the school came ashore at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx. In the following decades, it continued its tradition of training sea officers as a college within the State University of New York. Four Years Before the Mast is a narrative history of a unique institution that offers anecdotes from the 19th to 21st centuries revealing the harrowing existence of life at sea, death in the high Arctic, daring rescues of foundered ships, U-Boat attacks, and heroism on 9/11.

385 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

Joseph A. Williams is the Deputy Director of Greenwich Library (CT). Formerly, he was Assistant Director at the Stephen B. Luce Library of SUNY Maritime College and the Director of the Briarcliffe College Library. He lives in Connecticut.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a maritime school background and found this to be an enjoyable book. Many of the issues encountered by NY State Maritime are the same as those being faced by my alma mater (USMMA).

[alphonse p guardino · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a 1971 graduate of NY Maritime. A lot of interesting information about the early history of the school that I was not aware of in this book, as well as about turbulence in the many years between my graduating and getting at all active in the Alumni Association.

There are a few things I wish the author would have expanded on. One is the 1969 allision the TSES IV had with an uncharted rock. I was supposed to be on that cruise, but had to change sessions to take a summer school class. There are also some things I'd like to ask him about, but nothing critical to a reader who's not a graduate. For instance, early in the book he uses the says Mug, the Maritime equivalent of a plebe, means "mariner under guidance." His chapter notes at the end do not give a source for that. The first time I heard it was a recent e-mail from the current college president.