Est. MMXXIV · Brooklyn, New York · Maritime Excellence
Hi Brooklyn Maritime Academy unites rigorous academics with the living classroom of the sea — nurturing scholars who understand the world through mathematics, history, marine science, and the spirit of exploration.
Our Mission
The ocean has been humanity's greatest teacher — a force that forged civilizations, drove exploration, and inspired the mathematics that chart the stars. At Hi Brooklyn Maritime Academy, we honor that legacy.
Our education is grounded in the grand maritime heritage of Brooklyn itself: a borough shaped by tides, trade, and tenacity. Every grade level weaves together rigorous academics — history, mathematics, natural sciences, literature — with the lens of the sea.
We graduate scholars who are not just academically prepared, but genuinely curious about how the natural world works, and how human beings have navigated it across millennia.
Read Our Academic Charter"The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the globe. Its breath is pure and life-giving. The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature."— Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Ocean science woven into every academic discipline
Annual research voyages for upper-academy grades
Graduates lead in science, policy, and the arts
Academic Disciplines
Our curriculum draws from both classical academic tradition and the living science of the sea — seven interconnected disciplines that mirror how the world actually works.
From oceanography and marine biology to geology and climatology — students study the physical systems that govern our planet, with special emphasis on coastal and deep-sea environments.
Mathematics isn't abstract — it is the language sailors used to cross oceans. We root mathematical education in real navigation, cartography, and the quantitative reasoning that underlies all science.
The comprehensive history of civilization told through the ocean: from Phoenician trade routes and Polynesian wayfinding, through the Age of Sail, the slave trade, and into modern geopolitics of the sea.
Physics, chemistry, and the material sciences form the backbone of our natural science program. Students understand buoyancy, fluid dynamics, salinity, and the chemistry of life in oceanic ecosystems.
From Homer's Odyssey to Melville's Moby-Dick, the ocean has inspired the world's greatest literature. Students read deeply, write rigorously, and learn to speak with the conviction of navigators who trust their course.
Maps are the artifacts of human ambition. Our geography program traces the history of how we have understood and represented the world — from ancient portolan charts to modern GIS and satellite mapping.
Seamanship produced its own rich art: scrimshaw, shanties, navigation instruments, shipwright architecture. Students study visual arts, music, and material culture as academic disciplines in their own right.
Academic Pathway
Our twelve grade levels form one continuous academic journey — each year building on the last, deepening scholarly independence and intellectual range.
The foundational years. Young scholars learn literacy and numeracy through the wonder of the natural world. History is told through the stories of explorers and navigators. Mathematics begins with the real — measurement, patterns in tides, the counting of stars. Education in these grades is joyful, hands-on, and rooted in curiosity. Grades are reported through narrative growth portfolios.
Scholars grow into independent learners. Formal mathematics instruction deepens: algebra, geometry, and early trigonometry connect to navigation and cartography. History expands from local maritime heritage to world civilizations. Science becomes laboratory-driven. Writing workshops sharpen argument and voice. Grade assessments combine portfolio review with structured examinations.
The advanced years. Scholars choose academic tracks — marine sciences, mathematics and computation, humanities and history, or arts and culture — while completing shared core requirements. Annual research expeditions, thesis seminars, and interdisciplinary capstone projects define the upper academy experience. Final grades include examination scores, thesis defense, and longitudinal faculty evaluation.
Upper academy students join faculty-led research expeditions — real fieldwork, real scholarship
On-site marine science laboratory and astronomical observatory for hands-on academic inquiry
Calculus, statistics, and navigation mathematics taught with real-world oceanic application
Every graduating scholar completes and defends an original academic thesis in their chosen discipline
"We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something." — Mother Teresa
Our Scholars
Our educators bring active research and maritime expertise into every classroom — scholars who have sailed, studied, and published at the highest levels.
Chair of Marine Sciences
Former research scientist at NOAA's Ocean Exploration Program. Her fieldwork spans the deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to the coral ecosystems of the Indo-Pacific. Author of Depth and Discipline: Teaching Through the Ocean.
Chair of Mathematics
Specialist in applied mathematics, geodesy, and the history of navigational computation. He brings mathematics alive through historical problem-sets — students calculate the same lunar distances that 18th-century navigators used to fix longitude at sea.
Chair of Maritime History
Her academic research centers on the Atlantic world and the history of African seafaring. A published historian and documentary consultant, she believes no student can understand modern history without understanding the ocean that made it.
Chair of Literature & Rhetoric
Literary scholar and former merchant mariner. He has taught aboard tall ships and in university seminars alike — an education in itself. His upper academy seminar, The Sea in the Western Imagination, is the most oversubscribed course in academy history.
Admissions
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis for all grade levels. We welcome scholars who are curious, persistent, and ready to engage with education in its fullest sense.