A cadet at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) has publicly identified herself as “Midshipman X,” a sexual assault survivor who was attacked during a 2019 training cruise aboard the commercial ship Alliance Fairfax.
Midshipman Hope Hicks, a senior at the New York-based federal maritime academy, has filed a civil lawsuit against Maersk, a shipping giant that operated the Alliance Fairfax at the time of the alleged attack.
The USMMA is a federal service academy like West Point, but it primarily focuses on providing mariner officers for the civilian U.S. merchant fleet.
Midshipman Hicks, who was 19 at the time, was aboard the Alliance Fairfax as part of her “Sea Year” training period. In her complaint, she alleges that an engineering officer raped her after plying her with alcohol and encouraging her to drink heavily, according to The Maritime Executive, an industry magazine.
Last year, she wrote an open letter describing her ordeal under the pseudonym “Midshipman X” and said she knew of additional cases of sexual assault involving USMMA midshipmen. The letter prompted U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to temporarily suspend the academy’s Sea Year Program.
The Maritime Executive said AP Moller-Maersk, the parent company, launched an investigation and suspended five American merchant mariners who served on the ship at the time.
“The way in which the incident is described is not only contrary to ordinary decency but also in particular to our values and what we stand for in Maersk,” company official Palle Laursen told a Danish news outlet at the time, according to The Maritime Executive.