Aggies by the Sea tells the story of Texas A&M University at Galveston, an unusual educational institution that began operation in 1962 as a maritime academy with only twenty-three students and now enrolls more than 1,600 undergraduates studying the sciences, technology, business, and cultural aspects of the sea. The first class of students (all men, as Texas A&M required at the time) had no dormitories when class started in Galveston, so the students were bunked in the nurses’ dorms at the University of Texas Medical Branch. They borrowed their beds from the University of Texas and their training ship from the New York Maritime Academy. By 1969, though, the school had opened a full campus on Pelican Island. By then, some 150 students were studying in the program and it had its own home ship, the Texas Clipper. In 1973, the campus admitted its first female student—believed to be the first woman maritime cadet in the country—and added maritime science to its degree programs. Nearly one hundred photographs portray the growth of the Galveston school from its humble beginnings to what it is today; a full university, nationally prominent for its focus on the world’s oceans. Filled with lively anecdotes, reminiscences, and biographical sidebars, this lavishly illustrated book presents history with a bounce. “. . . provides an interesting window into Galveston’s past, considering how many issues—from the political to the meteorological—have brushed and shaped the campus and the island city.” —The Galveston County Daily News “Institutional histories generally make dull reading, but Aggies by the Sea: Texas A&M University at Galveston is a pleasant exception.” —Journal of Southern History
