Vice Adm. Gordon McLintock; Headed Merchant Marine Academy

Vice Adm. Gordon McLintock, who headed the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on New York’s Long Island for 22 years, has died. He was 87.

McLintock died Monday of bone cancer at his home in Chevy Chase, Md.

Born into a British seagoing family, McLintock first went to sea when he was 3 aboard a ship on which his father served as an officer. One of his grandfathers was head of a major shipyard and the other owned a Mediterranean fleet of sailing vessels.

From 1918 to 1920, McLintock was a cadet in the British merchant navy. Moving his home base to New York when his family moved there in 1920, the young sailor became quartermaster on the Lewis Luckenbach, at the time the world’s largest cargo vessel.

When he was only 24, McLintock became master of a Pan American Petroleum & Transport Co. tanker, the youngest merchant mariner in command of an ocean-going vessel.

He became a naturalized American citizen in 1921, and from 1930 on spent his career in federal service. He first worked as a Department of Commerce steamship inspector and during World War II was chief inspection officer for the War Shipping Administration and the U.S. Maritime Commission.

In 1948, five years after the Merchant Marine Academy was created at King’s Point on Long Island, he became its fourth superintendent. During his 22-year tenure, the academy became an accredited four-year institution offering college degrees to the officers it trained for the U.S. merchant marine.

President of the American Institute of Navigation for two years, McLintock represented the United States at several international conferences. He was promoted to vice admiral on his retirement from the academy in 1970, and later served on a congressional panel to evaluate U.S. service academies.

McLintock is survived by his wife, the former Muriel Thoms Bristow.