Kennedy moored at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Pier (2021)
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.
The SS Cape Bon was acquired by the Maritime Administration on 26 June 1985, and was placed in reserve at Suisun Bay, Benicia, CA, as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. In September 1985, she was renamed SS Cape Bon (AK-5059).[1] She served the US Government for over 20 years including several tours to the Persian Gulf as part of the First Gulf War.
In 2001, Cape Bon was moved to Buzzards Bay, MA for preparation to replace 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 Enterprise, after the school's original training ship USS Enterprise, on National Maritime Day 2003. She was renamed Kennedy in January 2009 in honor of the Kennedy Family.[2]
The TS Kennedy made 23 training cruises with the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The ship carried thousands of cadets during her service, calling in many Caribbean Island ports as well as making multiple Panama Canal transits.
Kennedy was deployed to New York Harbor in support of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in 2012 and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. Its mission was to house first responders and FEMA SCF personnel
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Corey Kilgannon (2012-12-11). "After Storm Work, a Night's Rest on Water". New York Times. Bronx, New York. p. A30. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Two other ships that were brought to the New York area to house workers, the S.S. Wright and the T.S. Kennedy, are anchored off Staten Island. All three ships provided sleeping space for about 1,200, but that number has decreased in recent weeks as the immediate response has ebbed, said Mike Byrne, 58, the coordinating officer in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency response in New York.