News From Fort Schuyler

June 23, 2008 - Volume 8, No. 21

PROCRASTINATORS DELIGHT - 'On-the-spot' admission was the draw this past Saturday for the college's Instant Decision Day on 21 June. Applicants for the Class of 2013 were invited to visit Fort Schuyler on the first full day of summer with their high school transcripts and SAT scores in hand. As the college web site modestly notes, the "....Maritime College boasts a 100% career placement rate and the nation's highest starting salaries for its graduates." What's not to like? Plus cadets get to go to great places on cruises.

AND NOW LIVERPOOL - After stops in Nassau, Palma, and Toulon, and bunkering at Gibraltar, the EMPIRE STATE VI is now visiting one of this year's European Capitals of Culture, Liverpool, England, with departure set for 23 June. Following the decline of shipping in the 1970's Liverpool reinvented itself and became a tourist destination, thanks in part to the Beatles, featuring its landmark buildings, waterfront and docks museums. Follow the homeward bound cruise at the college website - www.sunymaritime.edu

BACK THEN - The 1951 mug cruise for HARRY KESSLER ' 54 also included a stop in France - in Cherbourg "...which allowed us a couple of days visit to Paris. I went with friends I still have today: JIM LYNCH, GEORGE CLARKE, BILL KEARNS, CHARLIE BROWN and a few others.... In between port visits we would dilly dally at sea to acquire sea time required for eventual licensing as merchant marine officers. Our trip home took another three seeks and we were actually becoming 'old salts'. The routine became more manageable and everyone sort of got into a groove. We arrived back at the Fort in late August and were given a few weeks off before starting the new semester. We were now third classmen! The new class of 'mugs' had already arrived for indoctrination."

SECOND BANANA - DICK DeBOLD, '47 has a new book, Banana Shooter II, that was featured in an ad that appeared in a recent New York Review of Books. The novel, set in 1920's Nicaragua, deals with civil war, bananas and early intimations of a coming world war. According to a review, the book, published by Higganum Hill Books, is "...based on DeBold's own life as an alumnus of the New York Foundling home..." DeBold holds a doctorate from the University of California and has taught psychology at Wesleyan, Hobart, Harvard, and Long Island University. His academic publications includes, LSD: Man and Society.

A COINCIDENCE - Another author listed in the Higganum Hill Books catalog is STAN MESH, '47 who along with his wife, Sally, authored the 2003 book You've Got Mail from Kazakhstan, a collection of family correspondence of a couple relocated far from their suburban Westchester to an emerging, isolated nation which was just entering the world economy.

AN EVENTFUL LIFE - HARRY MANNING, Class of 1914 (described as being "ninety-nine pounds and five feet and one half inches tall" when he graduated from the New York State Nautical School) led an interesting life. He received two ticker tape parades for heroism on Lower Broadway in the 1920s (NFFS 8:18) "..in 1937 he was navigator and chief radio operator for Amelia Earhart on the famous aviatrix's record breaking flight from San Diego to Honolulu. Press of important affairs kept him from undertaking the same duties on the flight which subsequently cost the aviatrix her life. In 1938 a plane crash almost proved fatal for Commander Manning, but with characteristic determination he fought his way back to health and physical efficiency, despite compound fractures of both legs, his skull and jaw." In 1942 he steamed out of Singapore with a shipload of refugees just ahead of the Japanese invasion. By 1944 he was stateside, serving as the Superintendent of the United States Maritime Service Radio Training Station at Huntington, Long Island. (Source: Mast Magazine, January 1944) Manning returned to the merchant marine after the war. In late June 1952 he took delivery of the SS UNITED STATES and sailed her a few days later to England on her maiden voyage, setting a new trans Atlantic record of 3 days, ten hours and forty minutes for the voyage - averaging 35.59 knots.

EBB TIDE - The death of HARRY FLEURETON, '64 on June 9th was announced on the college website in a moving tribute by his colleague at the Maritime College, ANTHONY PALMIOTTI, '79. Like Harry Manning, Harry Fleureton was a sailor's sailor who excelled in his job. He sailed all sorts of ships in all the seas and rose to become Master of the tanker SS MANHATTAN, the largest ship in the U.S. fleet, built in 1962. As Anthony wrote, "Most professional lives are repetition. Harry didn't have one year 25 times he had 25 years of experience." For the full tribute go to www.sunymaritime.edu

COACH OF THE YEAR - Congratulations to head rifle coach, DORIAN GERMANY, on his selection as Coach of the Year in the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference. In his second year as coach, Germany led the Maritime College team to a second place finish in the Conference Finals. Germany, a graduate of Cazenovia College was an assistant coach at West Point before coming to Maritime. According to the college website, "The MAC is the largest rifle conference in the nation, made up of 15 active member institutions." www.sunymaritime.edu

TOP SAIL - SUNY Maritime is again ranked among the top collegiate sailing teams in the nation. In the recent ICSA/Gill National Championship races in Rhode Island, the Fort Schuyler team competed against seventeen other teams. On July 19 noted sailing commentator GARY JOBSON, '73, will present a one-hour program on the race on ESPNU at noon ET.

YOUNG SAIL- This fall urban youth at high schools in Manhattan will be offered science and engineering credits for participating in a free sailing program run by the Hudson River Community Sailing program. Earlier this month some high school students were at the college pier helping prepare four Rainbow 24 sail boats for the program, which will be based at Pier 66 in Chelsea. "It's all about presenting the idea of hands-on sailing that will bring kids out," a 17-year old senior at Bayard Rustin High School, Shawn MacIorrain, said. Maclorrain was one of the four seniors who came out to help prepare the boats for their launch, sanding, scraping, and cleaning on the docks of the SUNY Maritime College underneath the Throgs Neck Bridge. None of the four high school students present that day had ever sailed" (but who knows, perhaps some will become collegiate sailors at SUNY Maritime?) www.nysun.com

NO FISH STORY - According to the local cable station, NewYork1, the best hidden treasure for fishermen in the Bronx can be found at Fort Schuyler. Check out the video at www.ny1.com

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Richard Corson - Forest Hills, NY

Latitude 40.716N Longitude 73.85W

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