People
STEVENS '16 WRITES FOR ISLAND
INSTITUTE
MaineMaritimeAcademymarine
transportation and marine engineering
students do not limit themselves to
just operating and maintaining ships. They often
stretch themselves by undertaking unexpected
opportunities. One such student is Benjamin
Stevens '16 who just entered his sophomore year
as a marine transportation major and a Strategic
Sealift Officer Program (NROTC) member.
Stevens, from Islesford (Little Cranberry island),
competed for and received one of the prestigious
Island Institute's journalism internships. For his
journalism project, he developed and wrote a
column called "From Castine to the World" for
the Working Waterfront. His first few articles
detailed his experiences and thoughts about
being a freshman middie aboard the TS State
of Maine as she cruised the Atlantic coast and
the Caribbean. Here are a few of his printed
observations:
On training, we attend classes
and labs on various seamanship and
engineering skills. One activity is fire
training. Besides our drills, we take
courses in fire fighting at the academy,
and at sea, we keep up the practice.
This week, Capt. Teel (a training
officer) covered all of the oxygen masks
with paper to blind us and had us crawl
through a confined space filled with
debris to find a `victim' and get him out.
Utility is the low point for everybody
on the ship. This is the rotation of
cleaning toilets and waxing decks. We
takes his opportunities...and this week
would be the Coast Guard helicopter
deal with things like garbage and waste
I write to you not from my stateroom
pilot. So here I am in a hospital bed...
management in utility ­ and it is very
on the
and Murphy is sitting in a chair in the
important to do, just like everything
corner giving me his coy smile.
quart TS
ers Stat
withe of
lots Maine, but from
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Living in close
else.
of other young men...
Although Stevens thought he would be ashore
Health is all-important to the
can get you sick. My kidneys had a
for the remainder of his training cruise, he was
industry...after all, there is no hospital
serious reaction to a mild case of strep
able to rejoin his shipmates a week later and
nearby...Furthermore, everyone on
throat, and when the doctor figured this
complete al the requirements for his freshman
board has a set of jobs to do...therefore,
out, he decided it was safer to stick me
cruise. His articles can be found online at www.
if you get sick, someone else has to do
ashore. After all, 200 miles offshore is
workingwaterfront.com/articles or in June/July/
your work, and nobody is happy.
a lousy place to have kidney problems,
August issues of the newspaper itself.
Murphy [ofMurphy'sLawfame]
and the only one who might have fun
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MARINER /
2013 - ISSUE 3
Mariner 2013.3.indd 16
11/22/13 11:19 AM