Click here to view a multimedia presentation recounting
the history of SCI's Navigational School.
The Navigational School at the Seamen’s Church Institute had humble and informal beginnings in 1899. In December of that year, Navy Commander W. H. Reeder wrote to J. Augustus Johnson, who was serving as Chairman of SCI’s Committee on Navigation. The letter contained a list of materials that would be needed for a teaching ship at SCI. The list included grummets, 100 pounds of hemp rope for knotting, 25 pounds of hambroline, and stopping blocks.
In 1906, the still informal Navigational School met in one room, probably at the Institute’s headquarters at 1 State Street. In 1914, the School partnered with the ailing New York Nautical College and YMCA. By 1916, the partnership between the YMCA and SCI was dissolved. The Navigational School reorganized and opened as the Navigational and Marine Engineering School of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York.
After reorganization, the school was run by Captain Robert Huntington (pictured left). A retired sea captain, Huntington previously ran a navigational school in Boston for 12 years but left to teach at SCI. As the United States was on the brink of entering World War I, there was a very high demand for seamen. Huntington advertised the school heavily. SCI trained 15,000 men for World War I.
SCI founded the school not only to educate those who wished to go to sea but also to give them opportunity for advancement. Seamen often had to spend years as apprentices before being able to sit for exams to qualify for promotion. After completing the courses at SCI, the men were able to sit for entrance exams to the United States Naval Academy, and, indeed, many gained admission. Instructors at the Navigation School were teaching practical subjects on a real vessel.
In 1915, Louis Gordon Hamersley donated to SCI a vessel named the J. Hooker Hamersley in memory of his father. The ship was originally used to tender crew to and from ships during wartime, making tri-weekly trips to the lower Bay. In its new teaching role, the ship gave each man individual instruction on the use of equipment, including a standard compass, tell-tale compass, sounding machine, hand leads, patent log, chip log, international code flags, and charts. Ashore, SCI taught classes in gunnery, signaling, and ordnance. Later, the courses expanded to include latitude by various measurements, calculations, ship’s positioning, use of charts, sextant adjustment, first aid, and course and distance. Courses were taught on the roof of 25 South Street, where a mock ship’s bridge was created. At 212 feet above street level, it was advertised as the highest navigation bridge in the world.
During World War II, more than 25,000 mariners were trained at SCI for war efforts. By this time, the Navigational School had changed its name once again to the Merchant Marine School. In 1942, 300 high school boys were enrolled as aeronautical cadets and got their first taste of navigation. After World War II, the shipping industry began swift changes. SCI and the Merchant Marine School were right there to change with it.
Just as technology on ships changed, the technology on which the students were taught changed, too. In 1968, SCI moved into their new headquarters at 15 State Street. In the 1970s and 80s, changes in licensing, shipping, and certification requirements hastened SCI to change their programs as well. In the fall of 1985, the first radar training conference was held. This conference led to international standards of simulator training. SCI began turning classrooms into ship’s bridges again, but this time inside the building. The training academy became known as the Center for Maritime Education (CME), which it is still called to this day.
Today, state-of-the-art simulators found at SCI locations in Paducah, KY and Houston, TX train thousands of mariners annually, using many scenarios from real life on the seas and inland waterways. While the simulators can never replace actual experience, they give students the practical advice and training to be able to successfully navigate whatever circumstances may arise.
