• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

TS Kennedy ex-SS Velma Lykes

The TS Kennedy is owned and operated by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and has been used as a training vessel by Massachusetts Maritime Academy since 2003. The 53-year-old T.S. Kennedy is a federally owned vessel originally built in 1967. and converted into a training ship in 2003. She was renamed the T.S. Kennedy in 2009 following a $10 million rehabilitation. The old way of getting training ships was to chase an earmark and find an old freighter or tanker and try to spend $50 million to convert that hull into a training ship. The current condition and age of the Kennedy is the largest threat to the academy as the vessel was significantly past its predicted life. The vessel is scheduled to go into dry dock every two or three years.

MS provided construction support for Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s training vessel the T.S. KENNEDY (formerly the T.S. ENTERPRISE). The 540-foot long vessel was originally the SS VELMA LYKES, constructed by Avondale Shipyards for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company in 1967. In 1986 she was placed into the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) under the ownership of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) and was renamed the SS CAPE BON. In 2002 The SS CAPE BON underwent a conversion to a “public nautical schoolship” at Bender Ship Repair and was commissioned to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy as the T.S. ENTERPRISE.

JMS provided the marine engineering and design for converting the existing cargo space in #3 Hold, lower tween deck, to a berthing space for 90 cadets and the existing boat deck aft void space into staterooms for 18 officers. JMS provided drawings for the general arrangement, structure, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and structural fire protection. JMS also provided the bidder’s specification for the project.

Additional lifeboats were required to be installed to accommodate the increase in the ship’s berthing capacity. JMS prepared the engineering design and the contractor’s specification package for installing two Fr. Fassmer CLR C 6.4 70 person lifeboats/rescue boats and associated FPD 80 CLR 6.4 davit assemblies and replacing the existing ship’s fast rescue boat with a Fr. Fassmer model FRR 6.5 ID-SF fast rescue boat and associated PHRE 30 davit assembly. JMS also modified the existing exterior ladders in the area of the lifeboats to allow for a more efficient means of egress. A larger and more welcoming quarterdeck was designed to accommodate the 623 cadets, 102 crew as well as visitors aboard the vessel.

The entire structural fire protection plan had to be revised to bring the 42 year old vessel to modern fire and life saving standards. Specifications and engineering drawings were developed for the replacement of bulkheads, insulation, overheads, and windows throughout the vessel. JMS also provided the engineering design services for the installation of an IMS type F12, fully electric operated, hydraulic sliding watertight door in the area of the vessel’s aft classrooms and replaced the existing shaft alley watertight door with an IMS type N-280, fully electric operated, hydraulic watertight door. Both doors were connected to the ship’s existing watertight door system.

In addition, JMS modified two of the ship’s existing cargo oil tanks to sewage holding tanks and designed a sewage transfer system. The sewage transfer system will allow the ship’s engineers to transfer sewage from the ship’s existing marine sanitation devices (MSD) to the converted holding tanks while operating within U.S. coastal waters to comply with the new EPA vessel general permit (VGP) requirements. JMS documented the existing MSD system to submit to ABS and USCG in order to gain class approval for the system currently installed. JMS is also conducting a stability analysis on converting the existing cargo oil tanks, currently used as ballast tanks, to sewage holding tanks.

All of the work was conducted pier side at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The $10 million project lasted almost 12 months and had to accommodate cadet schedules and other vessel activities throughout the year.

In 1964 SS Velma Lykes was laid down as a Maritime Administration (MARAD) subsidized break bulk cargo C4 freighter type at Avondale Industries, New Orleans, LA. SS Velma Lykes was completed and launched at Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans in 1967. She was delivered to Lykes Brothers Steamship Co. for Far East operations. SS Velma Lykes made history in 1979 when she became the first US flag vessel to call on the mainland Chinese port of Whampoa since the Chinese communist revolution.

In 1985 MARAD acquired SS Velma Lykes for RRF and renamed to SS Cape Bon. SS Cape Bon activated for Desert Storm in 1991. In 2003 the ship was converted as a training ship and renamed as TS Enterprise. TS Enterprise was renamed to TS Kennedy to honor President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family in 2009. TS Kennedy was activated to support FEMA in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. TS Kennedy was activated to support hurricane relief in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico in 2017.

Cadets who select majors in Marine Engineering and Marine Transportation must complete at least four more Sea Terms. A large majority of the Second Class Cadets fulfill their Second Class Sea term on commercial vessels of the US Merchant Marine. USCG candidates from Marine Engineering and Marine Transportation must accrue no less than 180 approved days in this experience over the four years of matriculation.

Sea Terms are conducted between the two Academic Semesters, in January and February. Cadets register soon after the New Year holiday, and prepare the T.S. Kennedy for sailing, including loading provisions in the freezers and dry stores spaces. The ship sails for foreign ports of the Caribbean Sea three out of four years, and one in four goes to the Mediterranean Sea. At least one of the Caribbean voyages includes the Panama Canal and an Equator crossing. In the past ten years the cadets have visited Barbados, Curacao, Aruba, Spain, Italy, Tenerife, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, England, Madeira, Greece, Cayman Islands, Martinique and Tortola, not to mention great US ports like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans and Charleston.

The Sea Term is not a pleasure cruise. The voyage lasts about 52 days on average, and during that time a cadet will rotate through class and laboratory training at sea, ships operations including deck and engine watches, maintenance and emergency drills. Port visits offer a time to relax, but still includes watch responsibilities and ship's maintenance.

The Cadet Shipboard Maintenance Program (CSMP) is a multi-purpose element of the leadership and knowledge experience for cadets at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The program primarily provides the necessary level of maintenance effort that the Academy must give under the loan agreement with the Maritime Administration; and it also gives the cadets the opportunity to apply the science taught in many classes; provides leadership and supervisory experiences for the regimental structure; and it provides significant credit toward the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping required of all license candidate cadets.