Day 18:Jordan Goddard-Brown

Good morning all!

I am Jordan Goddard-Brown from Milton, Massachusetts, graduated from Milton High School, and I am now a junior at the Academy studying International Maritime Business.

We started early today to beat the Bangkok traffic, leaving our hosts at AIT and piling into the vans at around 0700. Today’s morning was especially beautiful as we had a refreshing smattering of rain, which the city hadn’t seen for some four-odd months. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t beat the traffic! Some combination of the rain and the usual throng of vans, cars, buses, and scooters on the motorway resulted in us arriving at our destination about four minutes later than intended. Nothing crazy, but as cadets and professionals, we do strive for punctuality.

Our host was the Merchant Marine Training Centre (MMTC), a maritime academy located in the Bang Duan subdistrict of Bangkok located right smack dab on the incredible Chao Phraya River.

Upon our arrival, we were given extensive tours of the MMTC’s two training ships; the Sakhon Wisai, a 17-year-old, 92-meter-long training ship, and her older sister the Visud Sakorn which measures 60 meters in length, constructed in 1986. Afterwards, we sat down in her mess deck at a welcome reception and were given a presentation on the school’s history and programs of study. There was a Q&A session with current MMTC cadets; as it turns out, life’s not so different in Bang Duan than in Buzzards Bay! The cadets at MMTC have to adhere to a strict code of conduct and live regimentally while following a student-managed chain of command…. stop me if this sounds familiar.

We wrapped things up at the MMTC with a nice lunch and enjoyed the company of our new shipmates, swapping anecdotes and Instagram handles, joking and laughing as if we hadn’t just met an hour ago. Suddenly, there was an insane monsoon-like shower of water and wind. The rain wrapped up quickly about an hour later.

We headed next to Fort Chulachomklao a now de-commissioned artillery turret located just an hour or so south of the city at the mouth of the very same Chao Pharaya river that runs all the way up to the MMTC. We were given a quick presentation on the fort’s history by its commanding officer (despite the de-commissioned status Chulachomklao is still operated by the Thai Royal Navy), where we learned that it was built in 1887 at the strategic location of the river mouth to protect Bangkok against foreign invaders like the French who attempted to subjugate Thailand during the 19th century. We saw the actual gun installation itself; a beautifully preserved “crouching tiger” 152/32 mm Armstrong cannon sitting deep in the fort. Finally, we visited the HTMS Maeklong, a once royal war barge turned open-air naval museum.

Weird weather, cool history, and new international connections; a very good day for us cadets on the trip today.