Abuse of Females at Academy Uncovered

SACRAMENTO —  Students at the state-supported California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, especially female students, have been subjected to flagrant sexual harassment and discrimination, the National Maritime Administration has concluded in a scathing report.

Many of the incidents occurred during annual three-month cruises aboard the training ship Golden Bear, especially during a ritual known as the “Equator crossing ceremony.”

Maritime Administration investigators found these examples of misconduct:

- During the 1988 cruise, midshipmen defecated in the hat of a female student, who then received demerits for appearing at formation without a hat.

- Students called “polliwogs” (those who had not crossed the Equator before) were forced to engage in “acts of mock sodomy” with “shellbacks” (those with previous Equator crossings).

- Polliwogs found guilty of “crimes” by what the report described as a shipboard “kangaroo court” were ordered to slide down an inflated escape slide filled with rotten food.

- During the 1988 cruise, skits were presented that were so “malicious or vindictive” that “one female midshipman featured in a skit left the room in tears.”

- Two women told investigators they “hid in their berthing area for hours” to avoid participating in the Equator crossing ceremony.

- Women who complained about the Equator ritual told investigators they were given “unfair work assignments” such as cleaning up the kitchen or eight consecutive weeks of guard duty.

The events that took place aboard the Golden Bear and at the Maritime Academy were due to “a breakdown in leadership and discipline by senior California Maritime Academy officials and a general lack of understanding by all midshipmen of what behavior constitutes sexual harassment and discrimination,” the report stated.

Some of the actions were not only discriminatory but also dangerous, investigators concluded.

For instance, “polliwogs” were forced to crawl through torrents of water from fire hoses and “it is quite foreseeable that a midshipman could be washed overboard” in such a situation, the report said.

Merchant Marine Capt. Warren G. Leback, the Federal Maritime Administrator, sent the findings to Bruce Johnston, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Maritime Academy, which is one of half a dozen institutions in the country that train students seeking to become licensed officers in the U.S. Merchant Marine.

The Board of Governors will meet in Vallejo on Nov. 15 and is expected to discuss the report.

The Academy has 410 students this year, of whom 51 are women, and a faculty of 40. The annual budget is more than $9 million, most of which comes from the state.

However, the Federal Maritime Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, investigated the allegations of sexual harassment because it gives $100,000 a year to the school, subsidizes 215 of the students and also pays for the operation and maintenance of the Golden Bear, a World War II troop transport that was given to the school for training exercises in 1970.

The investigative team recommended that the school do away with the Equator crossing ceremony and “prohibit any further irresponsible and violent behavior on board the training vessel.”

The team also recommended that Merchant Marine Adm. John J. Ekelund, the school’s president, and his aides take action to, among other things, create a “non-discriminatory environment,” improve discipline procedures and student counseling and add at least one female to the permanent faculty.

Tom Kilpatrick, dean of students at the Maritime Academy, acknowledged that there have been instances of sexual harassment and discrimination at the academy and on board the Golden Bear, but said, “we’re doing what we can to keep proper controls over it.”

Kilpatrick said students who were guilty of such behavior on the 1989 cruise were identified through a videotape shot by one of the midshipmen and were punished. Faculty members also were seen on the videotape, he said, but “unfortunately not at the time of the incidents” so none was punished.

He called the Equator crossing ceremony a tradition “as long as there have been sailors at sea,” but said the Board of Governors already has voted to abolish it.

Contrary to the report, Kilpatrick said, there are three women on the faculty now and a fourth will be added in January. There are also female counselors, he added.

“We have been a leader in programs for women,” Kilpatrick said, noting that Lynn Korwatch, the first woman to become a merchant ship commander, was a 1976 graduate of the academy.

There have been allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the Maritime Academy for several years. In 1988 an internal investigation at the academy confirmed many of the charges but little was done, according to the later Maritime Administration report, and the officer who conducted the investigation was demoted.

After press reports and complaints from the office of Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), the Maritime Administration sent a six-member investigative team to Vallejo last June.