TS Kennedy - Final Transit, Houston to Galveston

Описание: The USTS Kennedy completed her last transit under her own power on 24 July 2025, one day after arriving to the Port of Houston's Bayport Terminal. This marked the end of Texas A&M Maritime Academy's Sea Term 2025, as well as a 58-year career for the ship. She would lay alongside at Texas A&M University at Galveston for several weeks before being towed to the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Beaumont, TX.

Friends and family of the ship's complement were aboard for the trip, allowing them to see not only the ship, but also a number of others as the Kennedy met them in the Houston Ship Channel.

The training ship was launched in 1967 as the SS Velma Lykes, a general cargo ship for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company. The Far East Clipper class (MARAD design C4-S-66a) was designed to operate from ports on the US Gulf Coast to Southeast Asia and other ports in the western Pacific. It has been said that the Velma Lykes was the first US-flagged ship to call in China after the Chinese Civil War; however, the AP reported in April 1979 that her sister, the SS Letitia Lykes, was the first to do so on 19 March, 1979, calling at Shanghai. The Velma Lykes may have been the first ship to call at a different mainland port, but this is to be confirmed.

When retired from commercial service in 1985, the Velma Lykes was acquired by the federal government and renamed SS Cape Bon, sharing the "Cape B" class with some of her sisters from Lykes Lines. She was activated from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in response to Operation Desert Storm, where she delivered ordnance and materiel to locations in the Persian Gulf and Iraq.

After the USTS Patriot State (ex. SS Santa Mercedes) was found to be in a deficient state in 1998, the Cape Bon was chosen to be converted into the Training Ship Enterprise (MARAD design S5-S-MA66b), and was named for the first training ship of the Massachusetts Nautical School in 2003. In 2009, with all of the conversion projects completed, the ship was renamed for a final time, in honor of the well-known family from Hyannis Port, MA.

While in service as a training ship, the ship was also used to provide shelter and meals to relief workers after natural disasters, notably activating to New York in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and to San Juan, Puerto Rico, after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the island.

When the 2nd National Security Multi-mission Vessel was earmarked for Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Kennedy was in turn earmarked for Texas A&M Maritime Academy, and the ship was transferred there in 2023. The Kennedy is expected to remain in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet until the delivery of NSMV-4, the Lone Star State, to Texas A&M Maritime Academy.

Time lapse recorded at 1 frame/ second and played back at 30 frames/ second.

00:00 Title
00:18 Taking in lines
00:48 Underway
01:10 Bayport Ship Channel
01:48 Beacon 76 to Red Fish Light 1
03:08 Red Fish Light 1 to Bolivar Roads
04:24 Bolivar Roads
04:54 Galveston Channel
05:48 Maneuvering to berth
06:36 In position
06:46 Making fast
07:36 Dismissed
07:46 Final FWE