Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey Maritime Education Materials

SCI’s Navigational School partnered with the New York Nautical College and the YMCA in 1914, reorganizing two years later as the Navigational and Marine Engineering School of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York, led by Capt. Robert Huntington. The school trained thousands of men during World War I, using its ship the J. Hooker Hamersley both for on-deck training and as a transport Bessel for seamen in Port. Sometime before World War II, the school changed names again to the Merchant Marine School. By the end of the War, more than 25,000 men had been trained at SCI for service. Classes were conducted on the roof of SCI’s headquarters at 25 South Street, which had been converted into a mock bridge and was advertised as the highest navigation bridge in the world. The Merchant Marine School moved to 15 State Street in 1968 and continued training there. In 1985, the School began to develop simulator training techniques and facilities, a practice that continues to the present.