The Training Ship Patriot State slowly backed down from her berth at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, turned 90 degrees to port and headed out into Buzzards Bay to begin the 1998 Sea Term. A surprising number of parents, families, friends, and well-wishers had set their alarm clocks for "zero-dark-thirty" and reported to the pitch black dock to watch as the final preparations for getting underway were completed. Visitors were "piped ashore" at 0615, the gangway was down by 0645, and lines were taken in one by one until only two thin strands bound the huge ship to the land. Finally, at 0720, with a clear dawn breaking that allowed anxious parents and friends on the dock to make out the facial features of their cadet from the hundreds lining the rails of the Patriot State, Capt Tom Bushy gave the order for "Dead slow astern". The remaining lines were quickly taken in by cadets anxious to get on with the voyage. The tugs revved their engines, spewing diesel smoke into the calm air and tugging on the flanks of the ship. The obligatory one long and three short blasts of the ship's whistle (signalling a ship getting underway and venturing into the channel) caused many in the crowd to jump...and then all cheered as they could see the mighty ship slowly moving astern.
Within ten minutes , the ship was under her own power heading southwest. In fifteen minutes you could no longer discern the faces of the cadets and crew who could be seen leaning on the stern rails staring at the fast departing campus. Within twenty five minutes she was gone from sight. After days of constant rain (rumors of Noah loading animals two-by-two on the ship were greatly exaggerated), the 436 cadets and 106 officers and crew began an adventure that will take them through one of the mechanical wonders of the modern world, into the majestic Pacific Ocean, through the realm of King Neptune, across the equator and to faraway places with strange sounding names. The ones who return to campus on 22 February will be different people.