General Rudder

The General Rudder will soon be going back out for another trip around the gulf, but it won’t be Aggies by the Sea at the helm. Forty-one cadets from the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York will get underway Saturday aboard the T/S General Rudder to assist their sophomores in earning the necessary sea days to ultimately graduate.

Traditionally, the maritime community has for thousands of years believed that the name of a ship has a great role in bringing good fortune and safety to the vessel, its crew and anyone who sails upon it, thus; ships are not named arbitrarily. The Texas A&M Maritime Academy’s T/S General Rudder follows in this long-standing tradition.

The Texas A&M Maritime Academy’s TS General Rudder flagship training vessel recently departed for the first of two training cruises in the Gulf of Mexico.

Captains, officers and students of the Texas Maritime Academy, part of Texas A&M University at Galveston, recently departed for the first of two training cruises in the Gulf of Mexico this summer.