Name USTS Kennedy Launched 1967 | Length 165 m Builder Avondale Shipyard | |
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Owner U.S. Maritime Administration Operator Massachusetts Maritime Academy Homeport Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts Identification IMO number 6621662
MMSI number 338919000
Callsign KVMU Fate Training Vessel Massachusetts Maritime Academy | ||
Mma ts kennedy arriving home
USTS Kennedy (T-AK-5059), callsign KVMU, IMO number 6621662, is a former commercial freighter and a current training vessel of the United States Maritime Service.
Contents
Construction and early years
The vessel known today as Kennedy was laid down in 1964 as SS Velma Lykes, a Maritime Administration (MARAD) break bulk cargo freighter type (C4-S-66a) hull under Maritime Administration contract (MA 182) at Avondale Industries, New Orleans, LA. She was delivered to Lykes Brothers Steamship Company in 1966. She was known as the SS Velma Lykes until the vessel was reacquired by MARAD when she was renamed SS Cape Bon.
Government service
She would serve the US Government for over 20 years including several tours to the Persian Gulf as part of the First Gulf War before she was laid up in reserve at Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA as part of the Maritime Administrations National Defense Reserve Fleet.
In 2001, the Cape Bon was moved to Buzzards Bay, MA for preparation to replace TS Patriot State as the Training Ship for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She was converted to be a training ship at Bender Ship Repair in Mobile, Alabama, being delivered and christened TS Enterprise, after the school's original training ship USS Enterprise, on National Maritime Day 2003. She was renamed TS Kennedy in January 2009 in honor of the Kennedy Family.
Kennedy is currently under the command of Massachusetts Maritime Academy alumnus Captain Thomas Bushy.
Relief work
Kennedy was deployed to New York Harbor in support of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in 2012. Its mission was to house first responders and FEMA SCF personnel