Ring Dance a Naval Academy tradition since the 1920s

In the Roaring Twenties, the Naval Academy Class of 1926 would cut a rug dancing the Charleston, the fox trot, and even the waltz on a summery evening. That night in late May 1925 was the first Ring Dance at the academy.

Those men and their flapper girlfriends are long gone, but the tradition continues.

The Ring Dance celebrates the night 2nd class midshipmen officially receive and "baptize" their class rings in binnacles holding the waters of the seven seas: the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic and Arctic, plus a splash of the Severn River. A binnacle is a waist-high...