mass maritime

This week’s Photo of the Week is out of my archives from Sea Term 2008. I took this photo while on board a similar vessel doing snorkel tours of various points of interest, including a sunken German freighter.

Part of the fleet waiting to start at today’s regatta.

I’m going to start a new segment called Photo of the Week. Every Friday, I’m going to post a photograph of something MMA-related that either I or another cadet has taken. If you have a photo you’ve taken of something at or relating to MMA that you’d like me to post, please e-mail me to let me know.

Today was the annual Spring Career Fair here at MMA, where dozens of companies come to try and recruit this year’s graduating class, as well as some of the other cadets for internships and cooperatives. There were close to 100 companies represented, from all over the country and the world. I only stopped and talked with a few companies, since the main focus of this career fair was to help juniors and seniors line up jobs, so underclassmen were a lower priority.

I found this video, I’m guessing put together by a parent, of the Enterprise going through the Miraflores locks in the Panama Canal on our return trip. I’m pretty sure that I have photographs looking right back at that camera. I’m really glad that somebody recorded these shots, so thank you to whoever posted this!

Today was the Welcome Aboard event at the Academy. This is a day specifically for high school seniors who have been accepted into next year’s freshman class. It allows them to get a more in-depth sense of some of the things MMA has to offer, such as firefighting, cold water survival, small boat handling, and basic engineering. I was one of the cadets running the Semester at Sea seminar, where future cadets got to see pictures and videos from previous Sea Terms, get information about life as a freshman on the Enterprise, and have a question and answer session.

I found this video while surfing YouTube, and thought it would be interesting to share: Looks pretty awesome to me! It certainly provides motivation to do well here.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning I had watch 2330-0330 in the Cadet Information Center. As a freshman, I have to do rounds in either the even or odd numbered companies, and the other freshmen does the other ones. We are listed as messengers, so we also are sent to run errands if need be. Usually that shift and watch post is pretty boring, and rarely does anything happen whatsoever. This time, however, we did get a little entertainment.

The Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration have created a federal identification system for all personnel working in the maritime industry. The ID is called Transportation Worker Identification Credential with the intention of more effectively regulating and maintaining port security. All license track cadets here at Mass Maritime are required to enroll in TWIC to be in compliance with maritime regulations. We’ll need these cards when we do our commercial shipping co-op in Junior year, as well as once we graduate and are employed in the maritime industry.

Today in Basic Seamanship Lab we had our first experience training in the motor whaleboats. For those of you unfamiliar with motor whaleboats, here’s a picture of one very similar to the ones we have here at the Academy: Part of Basic Seamanship involves small boat handling, so we use the motor whaleboats to learn line handling and boat maneuvering. Today made it particularly interesting for our first time out, since we were fighting very strong crosswinds while docking, and driving rain.