“In Castine this week, a great deal of nothing happened.” So said Midshipman James Levine.
Many who come to Maine Maritime Academy from big cities learn quickly that life in rural Maine is not all about going to the mall and the movies on weekends, nor is it a place filled with attractions like museums or theme parks. As most small town Mainers know, you have to make your own fun when you aren’t working.
To rescue the bored midshipman, we have an abundance of clubs and activities on campus that vary from mixed martial arts (MMA at MMA) to Frisbee to schooner crew. Students often try a variety that both connect with and depart from their major.
Any student may sign up for “supplemental seamanship,” an activity in which students get their small craft endorsements and are allowed to take out the academy boats on the harbor. Do you like messing about in boats? Just pop down to the waterfront and file the paperwork, and you can tool about the harbor to your heart’s content.
If video games are your thing, the ship simulator in the BIW building can program any vessel you desire in any port, as long as it’s in the computer. Want to sail a destroyer up Puget Sound? No problem. Drive a 1,500-foot LNG tanker into New York? Done. The possibilities aren’t endless here, but if you put your mind to it, you won’t ever be bored.
The regiment has activities to engage in as well, outside of the daily formations and uniform-wearing and “good-morning-sir”-ing we do.
If you are interested in close-order drill and tossing rifles in elaborate performances while dressed as well as any officer, join the drill team. If you play an instrument, join the band company and play for school events, holiday ceremonies and the daily presentation of the colors (the American flag).
There is truly an abundance of activity on campus, whether independent or regimented.
If you walk around Castine on weekends, you’ll find it is indeed very quiet. However, look on Ritchie Field and you’ll often see a weekend sporting event going on, with many students and town residents in attendance. On occasion, the regiment holds weekend activities, such as the springtime ring dance—a junior-class ball in which the juniors take their class rings and baptize them in water from each of the seven seas, an old Maine Maritime tradition.
The Naval ROTC unit also holds its Navy/Marine Corps ball on campus in the fall, a very formal event in the military calendar that has all the officers dressed in their sharpest uniforms. It attracts impressive guest speakers, such as the commanding admiral of the military sealift command, who is an alumnus of the school.
The off-season in Castine is quiet, but no student will go bored. After all, if all else fails, one can occupy oneself with writing!
Benjamin Stevens of Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) is a sophomore at Maine Maritime Academy.