"Our Ship Has Come In"

It was as if the cadets at the U.S. Mer chant Marine Academy at Kings Point, L.I. were off to a carnival rather than to regular evening mess. They wore golf caps, bowlers, toppers and turbans. They marched into the mess hall with huge signs saying "Move Over, Annapolis" and "Our Ship Has Come In." The cadets had good reason to celebrate. Last week President Eisenhower signed a bill making Kings Point the nation's fifth permanent service school, thus putting it on a legal par with Annapolis, West Point, and the Air Force and Coast Guard Academies.

The only Merchant Marine academy wholly subsidized by the Government (the other four are mostly state-supported--New York, California, Maine and Massachusetts), Kings Point has faced an uncertain future ever since the end of World War II, never knowing from year to year how much money it would get. As late as 1953, the U.S. Maritime Administrator declared that merchant marine training was the business of the states, and Kings Point should be closed.

Last year, as a result of a save-our-school campaign by alumni and friends, Congress opened hearings to determine the academy's status. Impressed by the record of Kings Point's well-trained graduates (all bound to eight-years' service in the Naval Reserve) and wanting to strengthen the merchant fleet, the House and Senate decided that the U.S. could ill afford to lose the school. Henceforth Kings Point cadets will be appointed by their Representatives and Senators, will know for the first time that their diplomas will be as valid as those of West Point and Annapolis. Said one relieved first classman: "It used to be a gamble to come here. Now we've got a school."

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