California State University Maritime Academy

A rear admiral's flag.

Since the passage of the Merchant Marine Act of 1970, the position of President of the Cal Maritime is commissioned as a Rear Admiral (Upper Half) in the United States Maritime Service. Two past presidents are alumni of the academy.

1. Dwyer replaced by Nichols due to Navy requirements for regular Navy officers to be in charge of Navy-owned ships
2. During WWII, Superintendent and Master became separate positions
3. Edwin C. Miller appointed Interim Superintendent October 1971 – July 1972
4. On February 27, 1975, the title of "Superintendent" was changed to "President"

Cal Maritime offers one graduate and six undergraduate degrees, all of which are tied to a nautical curriculum. An additional Oceanography major was added in fall 2020. As of fall 2018 CSU Maritime had the largest enrollment percentage of Pacific Islander Americans and Multiracial Americans.[16]

Money magazine ranked Cal Maritime 15th in the country for value out of 623 schools it evaluated for its 2022 Best Colleges in America ranking.[17]

In 2019 Forbes ranked Cal Maritime as the 309th top college in the nation and 64th in the West.[18]

The 2021 U.S. News & World Report college rankings lists Cal Maritime as the No. 1 "Top Public College" and tied for 2nd out of 102 schools in the category "Regional Colleges (West)".[19]

According to a study by the Equality of Opportunity Project, the Cal Maritime had the best results of any California college in helping transform students whose parents were relatively poor (bottom 20 percent of the income bracket) into adults who are relatively wealthy (top 20 percent income) within a decade after graduation. 85% of poor students eventually became relatively wealthy. However, only 6% of the students came from poor families.[20]

There is no armed service obligation attached to graduation from the Cal Maritime. However, financial aid and additional career opportunities exist for those students who choose to participate in any of the several military programs available on the Cal Maritime campus:

• Coast Guard – Auxiliary University Program, Maritime Academy Graduate Program[23]
• Navy – Strategic Sealift Officer Program[24]
• Navy – Reserve Officer Training Corps[25]
• Marine Corps – Reserve Officer Training Corps[25]
• Air Force – Reserve Officer Training Corps[26]

Cal Maritime has a long history of athletic activities. Before it joined regular intercollegiate athletics, sports teams from Cal Maritime usually played military teams from local bases. In the 1970s, Cal Maritime began to organize its sports under intercollegiate guidelines, and the student body chose the "Keelhauler" as the academy's mascot. Until then, the Academy's teams were known as the Seawolves.

The Keelhauler mascot was chosen as Cal Maritime's athletic mascot by cadets in 1974, the name taken from a form of corporal punishment that was formerly used in the Dutch and English navies. Keelhauling involved tying the hands of a crewmember to a rope and hauling him under the keel of the ship. While the practice of keelhauling was formally abolished in 1853, the Keelhauler lives on as the official mascot of Cal Maritime athletics.

Cal Maritime's rugby program was started in 1998 and gained varsity status in 2001. Rugby was at one time the school's most successful sport, going undefeated against Division II opponents in home matches from 2007 to 2010.[27] Cal Maritime's rugby team has been nationally ranked in college rugby, won the Pacific Coast League's Western Division Championship in 2009 and 2010, and was the runner up in the 2012 championship of the National Small College Rugby Organization. During the 2004–2005 academic year, the women's basketball team was formed and now also competes in the CalPac.

The academy's sailing team captured their first Kennedy Cup – the National Collegiate Sailing Championship – in the fall of 2009. That victory earned it the right to serve as the U.S. representative in the annual Student World Yachting Cup championships in October 2010 in La Rochelle, France, where it placed 5th of 14.

The sailing team won the Kennedy Cup again in 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2022.[28]

In 2012, the Varsity 4+ of the men's crew team took first place in its event at the Head of the American Regatta. It beat teams from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, CSU Sacramento, CSU Long Beach, Humboldt State University, Saint Mary's College of California, Sonoma State University, and the University of the Pacific. At the 2013 WIRA championships, the men's pair placed 2nd out of 16, while the men's novice 4+ placed 6th out of 19.[29] Also in 2012, Cal Maritime added a men's cross country running team that finished 5th out of 8 teams in the Cal Pac Conference.

In 2014, Cal Maritime added a women's water polo team, followed by a women's soccer team in 2018.

In the fall of 2022, Cal Maritime Athletics formed a student run spirit group dubbed "The Watch", playing homage to "watch standing", the main duty of deck and engine officers on ships.